Melody Barnes: Human
by JanaeSpecter14
Summary: The aftermath of New York has damaged all the Avengers in some way. Tony, Melody and Clint experiencing the worst of it in all the different ways imaginable. Now with the threat of the Mandarin, Melody and Tony's now estranged relationship has to come together to defeat terrorism once again. Fifth installment of the Melody Barnes series (Iron Man 3).
1. Merry Birthday!

**" _I can turn it on. Be a good machine. I can hold the weight of worlds if that's what you need. Be your everything. I can do it. I'll get through it. But I'm only human and I bleed when I fall down. I'm only human and I crash and I break down. Your words in my head. Knives in my heart. You build me up and then I fall apart because I'm only human"_**

 ** _-Human by Christina Perri_**

* * *

Clint climbed up the stairs of his apartment building, just wanting to be home after the day he just had. Missions weren't the best and he was just happy to finally be home. All he wanted to do was take a shower with Melody and spend all night tangled up in bed with each other before their flight the next morning into Malibu. Christmas in Malibu. It would definitely be a change from snowy DC.

When he got to his front door, he noticed it was cracked open. He immediately dropped his suitcase and pulled the gun kept stowed away in the back of his pants. He pushed the rest of the door in, ready for anything that could come out at him. The immediate living room was dark, he could just see the outlines of the couch, tables, shelves and television set.

His mind was racing to the dreams he had the previous nights. The nightmares. He moved to the light switch, keeping his gun pointed out for the entirety of that intense moment of reaching, not sure if he was ready for what the light had in store for him. He had horrible possibilities playing in his head, everything from a robbery to Melody's body lying on the floor.

The second the light lit up the room, balloons floated in the air as people came out of all possible hiding places in his apartment. "Surprise!" They all yelled as one.

Clint let a small smile spread across his lips as he put his gun down. He looked around and finally noticed the banner hanging from the ceiling, reading, _Happy Birthday, Clint!_

He looked to the perpetrator of it all, making her way towards him with her blonde hair bouncing and a tight purple dress hugging her body. Melody Barnes. She threw her arms around his neck as he set his gun back into his pants while giving her a huge smile. Out of all the things she could have done for his birthday, he most definitely wasn't expecting this. "Happy birthday." She whispered to him while planting a small kiss on his lips. "And welcome home."

They turned to look at all of their friends, laughing and talking with each other with drinks in their hands as music pulsated through their apartment, giving Clint the biggest smile he had all week. "You did good, Barnes."

"It's 'well', babe." She spoke while putting her arm around his waist as he did the same to her, his hand going lower than where hers was.

"That's why you're the college graduate."

She turned to him, getting a smirk on her face. "You graduated college." He turned to her, wearing the same smirk she was. "It was a fake diploma, but you graduated."

He pulled her into him with a huge smile on his face as Melody continued to laugh. He placed his lips on the temple of her head, letting out a soft whisper of, "I love you."

"That reminds me," Melody spoke excitedly while moving out of their embrace to look at him with her bright, shiny blue eyes. "I have another surprise for you."

He turned his head to the side with a squint in his eye. "A bigger surprise than one that could have made me shoot up our apartment full of our closest friends?"

She rolled her eyes while looking back into the crowd of people. "Shut up."

Then, someone came out of the crowd that Clint hadn't expected to see at all. "Barney?" Clint asked as he moved closer to his older brother he hadn't seen alone in a long time. He probably hadn't seen him since he went to his house to see his own kids and when he's there, he doesn't spend much time with his brother. Just his children. It was great to just see him for once.

Barney immediately went up to his younger brother, wrapping him up in a hug. The two laughed, realizing how little they have seen each other and that they needed to see each other more. "Happy birthday, baby brother." He sighed as they pulled away from each other. "Damn, you're getting old."

Clint scoffed while looking him up and down. "If I'm getting old then you're getting old."

Barney began laughing while shaking his head. "Shut up."

"How did you get here?" Clint asked, thinking back on the shock he got from him being here.

"Well," Barney spoke while moving to Melody and putting his arm around her. "This slice right here text me, told me what she was doing for you, paid for the flight, hotel…" He looked back to Melody, giving her an angry stare which she gave right back. "Which I was going to pay for until I realized how stubborn she is." Clint looked to his girlfriend, giving her a bright smile, not expecting anything less from Melody. It was right in his review of her for SHIELD. "And now I'm here."

Clint pulled Melody in for a hug, knowing that he had made the right choice two years ago to be her shadow agent. She was just perfection in every single way. Melody also knew she made the right choice by taking him back six months ago. The way she felt in his hug felt like a warm, safety blanket. It felt like home to her. "I love you." She whispered into his chest while taking a deep breath.

Clint let out a loving sigh while kissing her on the head again. "I love you."

They broke away, giving each other a bright smile as he stroked her hair, giving each other that loving stare that everyone in SHIELD couldn't help but talk about. "Come on," Clint spoke, finally breaking his stare with Melody to look at his brother. "Let's get a beer."

* * *

Clint and Barney were leaning against the island of the apartment while Lucky moved around the kitchen, trying to find some dropped food from all the guests. "Lucky," Clint called. The dog looked to his owner and immediately ran to him. "Get out of here." Lucky turned around instantly and ran over to Melody.

She stopped her conversation with Steve to get down on her knees and begin scratching him on his neck. His favorite spot. Steve joined her on her knees, petting him the same way she was as their conversation continued, causing her to let out a bubbly laugh at Lucky licking her face. Clint smiled at her, knowing her happiness was so contagious. "What the hell did you do right?" Barney asked, breaking Clint out of his stare.

Clint laughed, realizing what he was talking about before looking back to Melody. "I have no idea."

Barney began to chuckle while taking a swig of beer. "She's the perfect one for you." He looked over to his brother, giving him a nudge. "Third time is the charm."

"Shut up." Clint laughed out before they turned back to her. "But now that you brought it up," Barney turned back to his brother, shocked. It was just a joke, but was he really gonna do it? "I'm gonna ask her to marry me."

Barney's eyes grew wide. This would be his brother's third marriage. He looked back to Melody, laughing with Captain America and Black Widow. His shocked face grew into a happy one. She was the best person for his little brother. She would be the _last_ marriage. "When are you gonna do it?"

"Christmas." Clint told him, finally taking his eyes off Melody to look at his brother again. "With her family all around." He nodded with an excited smile on his face before looking back to Melody. "It's perfect for her."

Barney placed his arm around his brother, letting out a happy sigh. "I'm proud of you." Clint looked up at him with a wide smile, knowing that his approval meant the world to him. The two turned to look back to Melody. Clint took a deep sigh, the only other approval he needed was the man who single handedly raised her. Tony Stark.

* * *

"Great party, Mel." Steve spoke as he lounged out on their patio furniture. "Really."

Everyone had gone home and Barney was on his way to the airport so it was just Clint, Melody, Steve, Emily and Natasha hanging out, ready to do their own little Christmas since they would all be in different places for the holiday. Clint shrugged as he shared a patio chair with Melody, who had changed from the tight purple dress into a loose sweater and yoga pants. His arms were behind his back as Melody snuggled into his chest. She still wasn't used to DC weather after being raised in Malibu her whole life. "I've seen better."

One of Clint's eyes opened as he cracked a smile at her. She punched him lightly in the ribs which he just laughed to. Melody began to curl back up to him, remembering how cold she was as Clint put one of his arms around her. "You're a dick." Natasha commented with an eye roll as she took a swig of their nice alcohol, knowing exactly where they kept it so no one else would get it.

Clint pulled out his phone, the lock screen being mistletoe, causing Melody to roll her eyes. The true fact was that she would never get tired of it. "Mistletoe." They leaned in, sharing a tender kiss that they all had to smile to.

"I think," Emily spoke as they pulled away from the kiss and stared into each other's eyes lovingly, the only way they could. "That we should start opening our Christmas presents."

"Yes!" Melody spoke as she clapped excitedly.

All Clint could do was smile at her. That girl was so damn beautiful, and after everything, she was his. "I'm going first." Steve spoke, getting up before everyone else. He passed Emily her gift first. "This is something I used a lot in World War II.

Emily gave him a skeptic look as she ripped the decorative paper off and pulled the top off the white box. She gasped once she saw what was inside it as all of them tried to get up so they could see what was in the box, curious of how good a gifter Steve was. It was a compass, but not just any compass. A picture of her mother when she was younger was pointing north. She looked up at Steve, knowing this was one of the best presents she had ever gotten. "Steve, thank you!"

Natasha watched as they hugged, getting excited, knowing Steve had only gotten the best presents. "My turn." She informed them all excitedly.

Steve rolled his eyes as he handed her a box. "Another World War II relic."

"God, Steve." Natasha mused. "Do you ever stop being a fossil?" But her mouth dropped when she got to her actual present. She looked up to him with bright, excited eyes. "No way."

"A very real, still very live grenade." Steve narrated as she spun the thing around.

"Cool." She whispered out, studying it all around before tossing it up in the air.

"Hey!" Clint scolded, catching the thing in the air before she could. Natasha turned to him with an annoyed face while handing it back to her gently. "Not in my apartment."

She simply rolled her eyes, going back to inspecting it. "Yes, suburban housewife."

Clint opened his mouth to argue, but Steve cut him off by handing him his present. Clint excitedly opened it up, loving Christmas more than any time of year, causing the biggest smile to spread on Melody's face. As he gasped, Steve and Melody shared a smile since they plotted together on this one. "You got me Hawkeye cuff links?!"

"Merry Christmas." Steve spoke with a shrug.

"I love this." He spoke as he looked down at them.

Melody was so caught up in Clint's happiness, she didn't even notice that Steve was handing her the last present. "Mel." Melody finally looked to him, giving him a smile of apology as she moved forward to grab the box. With an excited sigh, she opened up the box, gasping at the perfect set of pearl earrings. "They were your grandmother's." Melody looked up at him, starting to get sentimental. "They were a gift from my mother before she passed away." Melody stood up, hurrying to him to give him a tight hug. Steve really was the best at giving presents.

Melody continued to sit with Steve when Emily picked up the first bag she had. "My turn." She handed it to Melody, causing her to give her mother a thankful look. "Merry Christmas, baby."

Melody sighed as she took the bag, looking up at her mother. "It sucks that you're not gonna be with us." Melody spoke as she looked through the tissue paper.

She shrugged with a smile. "Christmas is more your Uncle Tony's thing."

Melody gasped, causing Emily to smile widely, knowing she had picked the perfect present. "You didn't."

"I did." Melody looked up with a bright smile. "Show everyone." Emily spoke obviously as everyone looked around confused.

She pulled her present out of the bag, still in its perfect packaging for everyone to see. "I got a Dark Violet action figure."

"You've truly made it." Natasha spoke in a sarcastic tone.

Melody stuck her tongue out at her before looking back to her mom. "Thank you."

"You're welcome." She spoke as she handed Clint the next present.

It was a thin envelope, causing Clint to look up at her skeptically. He tore the paper off and gasped. "You didn't."

"But I did."

Melody looked back and forth at the two, stopping when Clint finally looked at her. "Maybe Emily's the one with the best presents." Natasha mumbled under her breath, but still loud enough for Steve to hear.

"Verona!" Clint exclaimed as he pulled out the plane tickets, showing them to Melody. Melody hurried to him, looking at the tickets as if they were gold. "We're going to Verona for New Years!"

"Oh my god!" Melody exclaimed, pulling the tickets out of Clint's hands. "We've been wanting to do this – "

"For months." Emily finished, causing them both to look to her excitedly. "And you've got reservations at the best hotel."

"You're amazing." Clint finally spoke while looking to her. At the beginning, he wasn't sure if he really liked Emily, but now that she and Melody had a relationship, he had grown to love the woman like she was his own mother.

She shook her head at him. "The Italian president owes me a favor."

"I wanna go next." Natasha spoke as she moved forward.

Emily rolled her eyes with a smile, handing Natasha her box. "Merry Christmas."

When Natasha opened hers, a huge smile passed over her face. "Yes!"

"Fury owes me a favor too."

Natasha pulled out her new guns trying to aim them, but getting another disapproving face from Clint. "This is awesome."

"Steve," Emily spoke as she pulled out the last box. "Merry Christmas."

"Merry Christmas." Steve told her right back as he took the box from her hands. Emily knew just what to get Steve. He was just like Melody. He never wanted people to go out of their way for him. He wanted something he needed for Christmas. And Steve knew she knew that when he looked at his present. It was stuff he _needed_ for his motorcycle which was malfunctioning again. With this stuff, his motorcycle would run for years. He looked up at Emily with a wide smile, and she was the only one who knew why. "Thank you." He told her before leaning forward to kiss her on the cheek.

"My turn." Natasha spoke as she turned around to get her boxes. "Emily." She leaned forward, giving her the first present. "We kind of have the same taste."

When Emily opened her box, she immediately started laughing. They were the same guns she had gotten Natasha. "Why," Emily laughed out. "Thank you."

"Fossil." She spoke as she gave a box to Steve.

"You're a jerk." He commented while leaning to her and taking the top off of his box. Once he saw what it was, he looked up at her and frowned.

"Look," She mused, pulling his present out of the box so everyone could see as he continued to glare at her. "You got a little shield to put on your motorcycle now."

Everyone began to laugh, but Steve just sat there. "Oh, come on." Melody spoke while looking to Steve. "That's funny."

He gave Natasha a smile and nodded to the other presents. "Come on, we don't have all day.

"Clint," Natasha spoke as she handed him his present.

"It better not be something Hawkeye related." He spoke as he tore off the wrapping paper.

Melody rolled her eyes at him. "Just open it." He looked to her as he opened up the box, mimicking what she had just said, causing her to punch him in the arm.

Right when he opened up the box, he gasped. "Dude," He looked up to Natasha with a happy smile. "You got me new arrows."

"Newest from Stark Industries." Natasha spoke grandly as she looked at the arrows perfectly boxed up.

Clint looked to Melody with a smile. Melody shrugged. " _I_ owed her a favor."

"Melody," Natasha spoke, breaking her out of her stare with Clint to look at her best friend. "Merry Christmas."

It was a larger box, making her get excited when she took it from her. "Merry Christmas to you." She spoke excitedly. It was Clint's turn to watch her excited eyes rip open that festive wrapping paper. She had an idea of what it was since she had pointed out what she wanted when they went shopping a few weeks ago. And as she pulled the top off of the box, she smiled because she was correct. "Yes!"

As she pulled them out, she twirled them through her fingers lethally and expertly. "Black Chinese ring daggers." Natasha commented as Melody held one in each hand. "All you wanted for Christmas."

She put the daggers back into its box before going over to sit on Natasha's lap. "And this is why I love you."

Clint looked over at some of his favorite girls as he finished his drink before pulling out his presents. "My turn to give presents, then Melody, then you're all helping me clean up the patio of wrapping paper." They all groaned, but Clint ignored them. "Nat," he handed her the present first, Melody looked over to Clint with a smile while he gave her a quick wink. "Merry Christmas."

Natasha eagerly ripped the box open, causing an instant frown to spread across her face. "I get it." She spoke with a fake smile as she picked the cooking book up, causing the rest of them to let out small giggles besides the ones Melody and Clint had just by the look of her face. "I can't cook." Melody and Clint looked up at her through their giggles to give her a wide smile. Natasha just couldn't help but smile at how cute the two were together. "Smart asses."

Clint then extended his present to Steve, causing him to get really nervous. "Is it going to be something like Natasha's present?" He sighed out while giving Clint a tired look.

"Open it and you'll find out." He taunted while putting his arm around Melody.

Steve smiled while looking at the two, knowing they could have gotten him anything and he would have been happy with it. When he opened up the package, he rolled his eyes with a smile on his face. "I should have known."

He pulled out the Captain America action figure with a smirk resting on his face. Clint shrugged while giving him a goofy smile as Melody simply rolled her eyes, giving Clint that loving smile as she moved to go sit back down with him. "You could imagine the shock on the cashier's face at Hawkeye purchasing a Captain America doll."

"Thank you, Clint." Steve spoke with another eye roll as Melody sat on Clint's lap, wrapping her arms around his neck with another loving smile, Clint giving her the same.

Melody began to shake with her excitement, knowing that her present was coming up soon. "Emily," He spoke, moving across Melody to give Emily her present, causing a frown to appear on her face. She really thought this one was going to be for her. "Merry Christmas."

Emily had the same face of excitement her daughter had when she opened up her present, making all of them smile, realizing just how alike the mother and daughter duo were. "Aw." Emily exclaimed as she held the picture frame out for everyone to see. It was a picture of Clint and Melody cuddling close together. Melody smiled as she leaned into Clint's chest, causing him to give her a kiss on the hair. She knew it would look perfect in her office. "I love it guys." She got up, putting kisses on each of their heads. "Thank you both."

She moved to sit back down on her chair, causing Melody to turn to Clint excitedly, knowing hers had to be next. "My turn." She told him while excitedly clapping her hands together.

"No." Her frown immediately went away, but that just fueled his smile. "We're gonna be together on Christmas."

"So?" Melody spoke with a shrug while trying to reach behind him to get to the present from his hands, but he just moved it farther away. "Clint!" She screamed right back at him, causing smiles and chuckles from everyone else sitting around.

"Not until December twenty-fifth." He taunted with the perfectly wrapped box in his hands, causing Melody to give him a resting glare. "Miss. Barnes."

Melody moved behind her, pulling his present from the pile behind her. "Then you don't get yours until Christmas either."

Clint shrugged like it was no big deal, because it really wasn't for him. "I don't really care."

"God dammit." Melody whispered while looking down.

Clint moved closer to her, planting a soft kiss on her lips. "You've got some other presents to give out." He whispered to her.

Melody let out an eye roll, moving out of the position she was in to pick up the first present she saw. "I hate you."

Clint just pulled her right back to him, planting a kiss on her cheek that she couldn't help to lean into. "You love me."

"Mom," Melody spoke as she reached out to hand her the present. "Merry Christmas."

Emily smiled to her as she began to open op the present, causing a loud gasp from her. "Melody." She spoke in a hoarse voice. "This is amazing."

"Well," Melody spoke while giving her a wide smile, saying the same thing her mother had just said about her present. "Show everyone."

Emily turned to her daughter with a wide smile as she showed off her new picture. It was a picture of Melody, Emily and James back when Melody was a small child. Everyone awed as Clint pulled Melody close to him again. He really did love her and her generosity made him love her even more. "I love it." Emily told her sincerely, causing Melody's smile to get even wider.

"Natasha," Melody spoke while tossing her a small box. Natasha gave her a skeptical stare. Everyone else had gotten her weapons because that was something she obviously used the most, but not Melody. This was way too small to be a weapon's box. "Merry Christmas." She spoke with an excited shrug.

Natasha looked to her friend while opening up the box, only finally looking down when she was sure all the wrapping was off. Resting inside the box she had given her was a sterling silver necklace with a dagger pendent pointing down. She looked to her best friend with a happy smile. "Now you have a necklace for me and for Clint."

Her smile got even wider as she put it around her neck, realizing it was slightly longer than her arrow necklace, but still matching on the exact same color and size of the weapons. She looked to her best friend gratefully. "Thank you, Melody."

"And, lastly," She made sure to look at Clint as she spoke the word, causing an eye roll from him. "Steve." She handed him his present slowly, Steve catching on to it. She just knew that this was a present he probably wasn't ready for. He probably would never be ready for it. "Merry Christmas."

Steve looked to her with a smile, but he still looked skeptic as he opened up the present. When he got to the picture frame, like Emily, his breath caught in his throat. This picture had to be so rare. Steve looked up at her with wide eyes. "Where did you get this?"

Melody gave him a soft smile. "I had to pull a lot of strings, but I bought it from a museum." She looked over to the picture, her smile getting wider. "I thought you would like it."

"I love it." Steve whispered as he looked back down at the picture. It was Steve, Maria and Bucky standing around together, smiles on all of their faces. It was post serum. During the war. Steve couldn't believe that they had time to find these small bits of happiness during those times. Bucky's arm was draped around Maria's and they were both smiling in Steve's direction as Steve's head was down, laughing at a joke he wasn't sure which one of them said.

After a moment of staring, Steve put the picture down, looking to his great-niece before hurrying to her. She stood up, meeting him halfway there in a large hug. That present meant so much to him. He had nothing to remember his sister and best friend by. This was it. He began to rock Melody back and forth, just appreciating her so much. His niece was amazing. She may have had Maria's face, but she definitely had Bucky's heart.

The rest of them looked to the two, smiling happily. Melody really was the best thing for Steve. They both just got each other so well and everyone needed that one person who wasn't your lover. "So," Clint spoke, but the two of them didn't dare to pull away from their hug. "Let's get to cleaning up the patio." Everyone else stood up, starting to pick up the pieces of paper, but Melody and Steve just stayed in that hug, clinging to each other, so glad that he was pulled out of that ice when he was.

* * *

Clint was pacing around the bedroom with his phone up to his ear and a smile from ear to ear. "Thank you, Lila." Melody came out of the bathroom, rubbing what was left of the lotion into her hands. "Uncle Barney is on his way back home now." Melody smiled as she moved to her boyfriend, this being one of her favorite times when they got to call or visit Lila and Cooper. "Cooper, be nice to Aunt Kim." Clint's smile got even wider. "I love you both so much and we're gonna come visit after Christmas." He smiled again, his eyes traveling to Melody. "Say bye to Mel."

"Bye, Melody!" They both screamed out, causing Melody to smile as she moved closer to the phone.

"Bye guys!" She spoke excitedly into the receiver. "Get some sleep! I love you!" She made a kiss noise into the phone, getting off her tip toes to reach the receiver.

"We're going on a trip for New Year's so start packing." Melody let out a laugh while putting her face in his shoulder, thinking about how great their time would be in Verona. "I love you both. Bye."

Clint let out a sigh while hanging up the phone before turning around to be face to face with Melody. He knew he couldn't be with his kids all the time. It was for their safety. And he loved being with Melody. "We're going all over to world for the holiday season."

Melody began laughing while wrapping her arms around his. "We're gonna be in Malibu tomorrow, upstate New York next week and Verona by December thirty-first."

"Then," He spoke with a sigh and smile. "Back to upstate New York before school starts," Melody nodded as she leaned even further into him. "And then back to DC where we're probably both going to get sent off on other missions."

"So," Melody spoke, pouting her lips just a little bit. "I guess the only night we have to ourselves is tonight."

Clint gave her a devilish grin as Melody's angelic smile just grew wider. "It seems like we're gonna have a fun night."

Melody moved to his face, rubbing her nose against his, the small brush of a touch already driving Clint crazy. "Very."

With an intense silence passing over them, Clint scooped her up instantly and threw her down on the bed as she laughed wildly. He threw her down on the bed, climbing on top of her and kissing her all over, starting at her legs. She laughed like a banshee as he traveled up her and when he got to her face, Lucky pushed through the door and jumped up on the bed with the two. Together, they had the best night ever and it was much needed because this vacation, wasn't going to be a vacation.

 _ **I'm back! I hope you guys have liked the start to the new story. This was kind of just a cutesy start up chapter and all the emotional and Tony stuff will start in the next chapter! Missed you guys! Please review!**_


	2. Complications

_**ZabuzasGirl, I will definitely be making an Agent Carter fic, but I'm not sure if I will put it up after this story or the one after The Winter Soldier. I know you've been asking about this for a while and I've wanted to respond to you, but it always slips my mind so I thought telling you now would be perfect.**_

 _ **Okay, so Tony and Melody are going to be arguing a lot in this story and I just want you to be prepared for that. Their relationship is downhill and they're going to be working on repairing it for this whole story. So, sorry if they both get a little annoying, they're both obviously not in the best places right now. Enjoy the chapter, guys and remember to review!**_

Clint and Melody laid in their bed, Melody as sound of a sleep as she could get these days, but Clint was being haunted by nightmares. He let out small little whimpers as the dreams got intense, but Melody couldn't hear any of it, lost in her own deep sleep.

Clint let out another wince as his dream became beyond bearable. They were in New York. Loki was standing above Melody as she reached her arm out for him, just hoping for his help. "Clint." She whispered as Loki placed his boots on her neck and tears streamed down her face. With a little bit of pressure from Loki's boot, her windpipe collapsed. The bone crunched and the blood drenched that once delectable neck to nibble on.

His cries got more urgent, just enough to open Melody's eyes. She rolled over onto her right side, lightly shaking Clint, wanting to wake him, take him out of his suffering, but at the same time, she didn't want to scare him even more by pulling him out of the dream.

In his dream, he crawled over to Melody, barely able to breath, feeling all this pressure on his chest from Melody's life slipping out of his fingers so quickly. There she laid, choking on her own blood, breathing in what little oxygen she had left, every breath and heartbeat a struggle. He got just within fingertips reach of her when she took a final shiver, her gasps stopping and her eyes glazing over. Clint couldn't believe it. The pressure on his chest felt greater just from the look of her hand almost touching his.

"NO!" Clint yelled, sitting straight up in bed.

"Clint," Melody spoke, placing her hands on his shoulders, rubbing in soft circles. She was worried for him. This had become an every night thing. "It was just a nightmare. None of it was real."

Clint let out ragged breaths before collapsing into Melody's chest with desperate tears. Melody held him as tight as she could, trying to give him what comfort she could, but it was taking all of her not to burst into tears at his pain. "It was awful, Melody." He spoke through his gasps. Melody looked up, trying not to let the tears watering her eyes fall out. "It had to be the worst one yet."

Melody pet his head while planting soft kisses in his hair. "I'm here." She whispered as sincerely as she could, shutting her eyes, feeling these times were the most painful parts in a relationship. When she had to hold him while he cried. When he was in pain. "I'm not going anywhere. It's over. New York's done and I'm here with you." She planted more kisses, wanting to convince him more than anything that she was here. "Loki's in another galaxy and he's not going to hurt you."

Clint finally looked up at her, causing her to wipe some of the tears off of his cheeks and under his eyes. "That's what I'm worried the most about." Melody turned her head to the side. "That you'll do whatever it takes to keep me safe."

Melody looked him straight in the eye, knowing his pain was understandable because it was the most believable. She would do anything to keep him safe just like he would do to her, but they could both never lose each other. She finally shook her head, pulling him in for another tight hug by the head. She let out a deep breath, wanting to just hold onto him like this for a little longer before letting both of them fall back to sleep.

* * *

Melody stared at the dartboard on the wall, taking a deep breath before tossing one of her knives right on the bullseye. It still just wasn't good enough for her. She had spent the whole morning training, becoming sweaty from the intense boxing, cardio, muscle building and now target practice. She just couldn't wait to get back to Malibu to get her old sparring partner back. Happy Hogan.

She had been at the gym since four this morning. It was now six and her flight was in an hour. The door to her training room opened and she looked into the nearby mirror to see Natasha making her way toward her. She went right back to her target practice, though. "You know," Natasha spoke right as Melody threw one of the knives Natasha had just gotten her. "You're supposed to be at the airport two hours before your flight."

"That's a myth." Melody spoke before landing another knife in the bullseye. "You can get away with being there an hour before." Natasha got right behind her, causing Melody to turn around and face her with her hands on her hips. "What's up?" She asked out of breath from her two hour work out.

She let out a worried sigh while looking Melody up and down, not knowing how to bring this up. "Clint told me about everything that happened last night."

Melody let out a bit of a smile while turning to get her water bottle from behind the punching bag. "The nightmares happen to all of us and you know how hard it was for him to shake off Loki's control."

She took a swig of her water, but Natasha continued staring at her the way she was, not intending on breaking that stare anytime soon. "And I know what you do."

Melody bit her lip as she looked around the room. "I work out." She turned back to Natasha, shrugging like it was no big deal. "What's wrong with that?"

Natasha shook her head at her. "Nothing. Working out is a great way to let out your anger and stress."

Melody nodded, her smile getting wider. "Then we're on the same page."

Melody turned around, about to go back to her target practice, but Natasha stopped her. "But it's also a great way to avoid talking about the real problem."

She bit her lip as Natasha began to walk out of the room, leaving her to the rest of her workout, but Melody couldn't even stomach it anymore. She looked at the remaining ring dagger in her hand, knowing she was burying her issues and problems down by training as hard as possible, her shrinking weight and growing strength showing the most of it. None of that mattered to her in the moment, though. She wasn't going to get anything off of her chest anytime soon. With all of her might, she threw the dagger as hard as she possibly could, breaking the dartboard in half.

She let out a stressful sigh, that thought of everything falling apart in New York coming right back to her instead of it just going away like it usually did after a training session. She looked to the dartboard, knowing this was just getting too out of hand, but she just didn't know how to come back from this when she had gotten so buried underneath it.

* * *

"So," Clint began while lugging his bags behind him as they made it up to the steps of the house Melody was raised in. "Tony left Bern, Switzerland on New Year's 2000 to be with you?" Melody rolled her eyes with a light smile as she fished through her purse to pull her keys out. "The party animal Tony Stark?"

She turned to him, a smile spreading wider on her face. "My dad had just died. He wasn't heartless back then." She shrugged as she turned back to the door, pushing the key into the lock. "A little more egotistical? Yeah."

Clint snorted behind her as she pushed the door open. Melody took a deep breath in, feeling this warmth spread through her body at the feeling of being inside the house that built her after not stepping foot in it for nine months. "Welcome home, Miss. Barnes and hello again, Mr. Barton."

"Jarvis." Melody spoke happily with a smile from ear to ear. She looked around, noticing the emptiness of the usually lively place. "Where is everybody?"

"Miss. Potts is at work and Mr. Hogan is now head of security at Stark Industries."

Clint and Melody both made impressed faces at each other. "Happy's moving on up in the world." Clint commented as Melody gave him a shrug, not hearing about this at all.

"Mr. Stark," Jarvis began in a weary voice. "He's where he usually is." Melody looked directly to the stairs leading to the workshop as she let out a small smile. She should have known. "The workshop." Melody looked to Clint, reaching her hand out for him to grab it. He moved to her with a smile, taking her hand as the two hurried down the stairs.

There was Christmas music playing loudly, but the two stopped on the stairs once they saw Tony's Iron Man hand fly to him and connect perfectly, growing an arm. Melody turned her head to the side slightly, her mind going through all the possible ways he could have done this, wondering which one he was going to go with. The suit's right shoulder followed and then the right hand. "I'll be damned." Melody whispered. She was honestly shocked he got anything done without her. With the looks at all of the suits lining the place, he had done a lot without her.

He began to laugh while shaking his hands in the air. "Okay, I think we've got this. Send them all!"

"Too soon." Melody commented as all the parts woke up and began to attach on quickly. One of the parts running into the glass protecting one of the Iron Man suits. Another one bounced off the ceiling, busting a light, causing both Clint and Melody to duck.

They both popped up at the same time, Melody gripping onto the railing of the staircase, realizing how he did it. "Son of a bitch planted it into his body."

"Probably just a little fast." Tony commented.

"Slow it down a bit, Jarvis!" Melody yelled up, causing Tony to turn to her direction with wide eyes.

They gave each other a smile, but it was interrupted by another piece of the suit almost taking Tony's head off. Then the part protecting his crotch, coming to him way too fast. "Tony!" Melody yelled out in a worried voice as Clint winced while putting his thumb to his mouth, not wanting to imagine that pain.

The back piece crashed into him, but he caught himself with the thrusters in his hands. This was just making all of them nervous. They wanted to make it to at least Christmas with all of them alive. "Cool it, will you, Jarvis?"

The rest of the suit came on easy after that, but then came the face mask. It crashed into Tony's record playing, cutting off the Christmas music, causing both Clint and Melody to give each other a worried look. "Come on." Tony spoke, causing them both to look back at the mask staring him down. "I'm not scared of you." The mask flew to him, upside down, causing Tony to jump, flip and get the mask on his face just in time to land with his fist in the ground.

Melody let out a happy smile, making Tony feel so much better about himself already. He could still make her proud. "I'm the best." He whispered to himself just before the last bit of his suit crashed into him, sending him flying forward and all the parts of the suit falling off him.

"Tony." Melody breathed out, hurrying down the stairs, into the actual workshop and right to him, getting on her knees to be eye level as Clint stood close by.

"As always, sir," Jarvis spoke as Melody pried his face mask off him. "It's always a pleasure to watch you work."

Melody laughed with a slight eye roll as she helped her uncle up. "Hey, Mel." Tony groaned out while turning to look at her. "You sure you're eating? You look thinner."

She shook her head as she began to lead him out of the workshop. "Let's get you some coffee and breakfast."

"Sounds delectable." The two gave each other a smile, causing Clint's to grow wider. You could tell how much they missed each other just by the two being in the same room for not even five minutes. And they missed each other a lot.

"How are you doing, Clint?" Tony asked, turning his head around to make sure he was following.

"I'm just fine, sir." Clint spoke, his smile only growing wider. He missed watching the two act together about as much as he missed Tony.

* * *

The TV was on in the background as Clint and Tony sipped on their coffee and Melody cooked while talking to them through the breakfast bar. Melody whipped up her special French toast, a recipe her father taught her and something she was never going to forget.

The three of them sat in the living room, eating their breakfast and catching up, but they were interrupted by a high pitch frequency, causing them all to look to the TV where it had come from. It was the no signal picture with all the colors, but in the middle there was a symbol of two scimitars surrounded by some Arabic symbols. "What the hell?" Tony whispered, trying to change the channel, but it was on all of the channels.

Videos of a man with a long, stringy beard and his hair tied in a bun appeared. He was walking through the desert with men bowing before him. "Some people call me a terrorist,"

"Jarvis," Melody spoke nervously. "Make sure this a live feed everywhere and not just streaming to us."

People were getting shot on the screen right in front of them. "I consider myself a teacher."

"Oh my god." Clint whispered, watching him walk away from the murder he had caused.

Riots were breaking out on the screen and then pictures of American citizens and landmarks flashed before them. "America…" He sounded so disgusted with his aviators hiding all of the emotion in his eyes. "Ready for another lesson?"

"This is being broadcasted to every television station in all of America."

They all gave each other a worried look, but looked right back to TV, hooked on every single word he was saying. "In 1864 in Sand Creek, Colorado, the US waited until the friendly Cheyenne Braves had all gone hunting, waited to attack and slaughter the families left behind and claim their land."

"All of America is seeing this." Tony spoke in a worried voice.

"Thirty-nine hours ago," A video of an air base exploding filled the screen, causing Melody to put a hand to her now sick stomach. "The Ali Al Salem Air Base in Kuwait was attacked." It then switched to his evil face again. "I-I did that."

"Where's Rhodey?"

Tony shook his head, reaching for her hand. "States side. He's fine."

Melody felt like she could breathe easier, but she was still terrified. Just like the rest of America watching this video. "A quaint military church, filled with wives and children of course." Melody put a hand on her mouth as Clint moved closer to her, wrapping his arm around her shoulder. "The soldiers were out on maneuvers." A sick smile passed over his face. "The 'Braves' were away." It then cut to a video of the military church exploding.

"Oh god." Melody spoke while shutting her eyes. This couldn't be happening again. Not this close to Christmas.

"President Ellis," He spoke again as the video of a scarecrow dressed as the president burned. "You continue to resist my attempts to educate you, sir." He was leading a riot of men with guns, chanting as he had a sick, pleased smile on his face. "And now, you've missed me again." They all took deep breaths, knowing this vacation was over just as quick as it started. They had to protect their country. "You know who I am. You don't know where I am. And you'll never see me coming."

More riots and explosions flashed on the screen before it cut to the high pitch frequency again and the terrorist's symbol all over again. Multiple news reports came on about everything they had just seen, but the three of them sat on the couch, numbed by everything they had just saw. They knew this was going to be another fight, but they just didn't know if they were going to make it through this one.

* * *

The whole morning, Clint and Melody suffered through numerous calls from SHIELD as Tony watched the presidential address about how he planned on fixing that problem. And that fix was Rhodey, a paint job and a new name for his suit. That called for a lunch with Iron Patriot.

The four of them sat at their table while watching different reports on him. Clint gave Rhodey a look at hearing the new name again. "It tested well with the focus groups." Rhodey defended.

"I am Iron Patriot." Tony spoke aggressively causing a bubbly laugh from Melody.

"Listen," Rhodey spoke as Melody turned to him with a smirk on her face. "War Machine was a little too aggressive, all right? This sends a better message."

Melody took a deep sigh, looking around quickly to make sure no one was listening. "So what's really going on…with the Mandarin?"

Rhodey shifted in his seat uncomfortably while taking a long drink of his water. "Can we seriously talk about this guy?" Tony asked, getting even closer to Rhodey.

They all moved closer to each other, trying to keep this situation as hush-hush as possible. "It's classified information."

Melody rolled her eyes, leaning completely across the table. "I can call my boss, Nick Fury, and get the details for myself, but I decided to ask my friend."

"Okay," Rhodey spoke, moving even closer as they all did the same, the four of them barely having any personal space. "There have been nine bombings."

They let a silence pass over them as Melody ran a nervous hand through her hair. "Nine."

"The public only knows about three." Clint rubbed his fingers nervously while looking straight at Rhodey, nervous for what else this guy has done. "But here's the thing…" He took a deep sigh, making eye contact with each of them before finally speaking. "There's no bomb casings."

"You know we can help." Tony spoke as Melody and Clint gave each other a worried look. They had to deal with stuff like this all the time. This was their vacation and they wanted to spend it relaxing. This morning had already been stressful enough. "Just ask. I got a ton of new tech."

"New tech that falls apart during the first use." Melody scoffed while stirring her drink with her straw, thinking about how much she didn't want to do any of this. Yes, the world was in trouble, but she had done her time caring about the world. She wanted to be selfish, but she didn't know if she had the ability to be selfish.

"Yeah." Tony spoke, turning to her. "It could have worked better if you wouldn't have up and left me dry."

Melody's mouth dropped open, but Tony didn't miss a beat, turning back to Rhodey right after that insult. "I got a prehensile suit. I got a bomb disposal." Melody clenched her fist under the table, really wanting to get to a gym in that moment. She had to work these feelings off. The stress and reminders of New York. "It catches explosions mid-air."

"When's the last time you got a good night's sleep?" Rhodey asked instantly, breaking Melody out of her moment to really study her uncle. He looked so tired.

"Einstein slept three hours a year." He retorted, but Melody couldn't help but notice how dark the bags under his eyes were. "Look what he did."

"People are concerned, Tony." Clint spoke, remembering everything he was reading about Tony Stark lately. He also wanted to pull as much attention away from Melody as possible, knowing she didn't want to talk about any of her feelings or her relationship with Tony for a while.

" _We're_ concerned about you." Rhodey butted in.

Tony looked back and forth at the three with a shocked face, feeling like he was in the middle of an intervention. "You're gonna come at me like that."

"No." Melody practically screamed out, getting really annoyed with Tony already and she hadn't even spent a day with him.

"Look," Rhodey spoke, looking to Melody, sensing the agitation in her voice. "I'm not trying to be a dick…" He trailed off when two kids came to their table close to the Avengers that were there. "-tator." He finished in a low voice.

The girl pushed a paper to Melody while the boy pushed one to Tony. "Do you mind signing our drawings?"

"If Richard doesn't mind?" The table began laughing as both Tony and Melody took the pieces of paper. "Are you all right with this, Dick?"

Melody shook her head, looking back to the little girl with a sparkle in her eye. That's one of the things Clint loved the most about her. She was always so excited to meet a fan no matter what kind of a mood she was in. "What's your name, sweetie?"

"Erin." She spoke excitedly. "You're my idol." Melody gave her an even bigger smile as she picked up a crayon and began to study the picture of her with daggers in her hands. "I want to be just like you when you grow up."

"Not a bad thing to be." Clint commented causing in an eye roll from Melody before going back to the drawing.

"I loved you in a Christmas Story, by the way." Tony spoke before writing on the boy's picture.

"Listen, the Pentagon is scared." Rhodey spoke, leaning closer to Tony and Melody. Melody put her crayon to the paper, but had no idea what to write, feeling that pressure rise to the surface again. "After New York," Now fear was spreading through all of Clint at the mention of the city's name. "Aliens…come on. They need to look strong. It's not – "

"It's not superhero business." Tony spoke with the shake of the head.

"No, it's not." Clint looked over to Melody and Tony, noticing they were both doing the same movements, shifting in their seats uncomfortably, breath and pulse rising. Those were all of Melody's tells. They were both about to go into a panic attack. "It's American business."

The crayon Tony was using snapped under all the pressure he was putting on it, causing him to place a hand on his eyes. Melody let out deep gasps, feeling the breaking of the crayon to be too symbolic in the moment for her breaking. "I broke the crayon." Tony whispered.

Melody looked down at the drawing, her hand with the crayon in it, shaking uncontrollably. "I haven't written anything." She whispered, causing Clint to move closer to her, trying to act strong for her, but just the mention of New York was sending him into a frenzy.

"Are you okay, Mr. Stark?" The girl Erin asked, but neither of them moved.

The little boy got in between Tony and Melody, getting on his tip toes to whisper, "How did you get out of the wormhole?"

Melody let out a frightened gasp while throwing her face into her hands as Tony stood up from the table, hurrying outside. He pushed past all the people as Rhodey followed, but Clint stayed with Melody, gripping onto her arms. "Melody," He whispered. Clint looked around, remembering what he read online about how to calm panic attacks just as soon as the two started having them. "You're in a restaurant with a lot of people around, but I am right here with you and I love you insanely and unconditionally."

With another terrified gasp, she moved one of her hands to grip his tightly, but one hand was still covering both of her eyes. "You are Melody Barnes." He spoke in a reassuring tone. "You are a mechanical engineer, a bio chemist and an astrophysicist, the smartest person I've ever met. You are the mother of our dog Lucky." She let out a weak laugh, but Clint smiled, knowing it was working. "And your name is on the lease of our apartment. You were born and raised in Malibu and you now live in Washington DC. You are Melody Buchanan Barnes and you are my girlfriend."

With a long sigh, she removed her hand from her eyes before turning to Clint. She moved to him, giving him a passionate kiss, crunching her eyebrows together because of how much she loved him. When they pulled away, she stared at him for a moment, taking another deep breath in. "I love you."

Clint gave her a weak smile while rubbing the side of her cheek. "I love you."

She leaned into him for a tight hug, letting out deep breaths. She was so happy she had him there for her when she needed him, but she began to think that maybe this trip to Malibu wasn't in either of their best interests. She should have known that being around Tony's reckless behavior again was going to stress both of them out even more than they should be and with this pressure of the Mandarin, Melody was starting to think of leaving to upstate New York to see the kids a lot earlier than when they planned.

* * *

When Pepper walked into the door, she was immediately attacked by Melody. Her smile got as big as it had ever been as she hugged her back as hard as possible, letting out little sounds of joy. When she finally pulled away, she gave Melody an excited stare while Clint and Tony smiled at their happiness from afar. "I have missed you so much."

"And I you." Melody spoke through a happy laugh.

Pepper looked her up and down with a confused face at what she had just said. "You've been spending too much time around your mother."

Melody rolled her eyes, knowing that some British slang had fell into her vocabulary since she started spending time with Emily. "And I hear you've spending _a lot_ of time with Tony." She gave her an impressed smile as Pepper simply rolled her eyes. The two let out bubbly laughter while holding each other's arms excitedly. Pepper put her face to Melody's, missing what it was like to have her around again. Their girl time could finally start.

"Well," Tony spoke, causing the two to turn around to face him, their excited smiles still there. "I'm gonna go down to the workshop for a bit and get some stuff done."

Melody let out a scoff, moving out of her embrace with Pepper to get to Tony. "But Pepper just got here. I thought we were gonna have time as a family."

"And we will." Tony spoke, moving close to Melody, but she was just confused. "I just have a lot of stuff I need to get done."

Melody blinked and shook her head quickly, finding this all just so hard to believe. "It's just a few days before Christmas, don't you think you can just put it down for now?"

Tony gave her a polite smile as Pepper and Clint gave each other a worried look. Sure, they had fought like this before, but never so soon after being separated for so long. "It's important work."

"It's an Iron Man suit." Melody practically spat out. "You're either do it for fun or because you want to keep your mind of something." Tony's smile went away and the two were practically staring daggers at each other. "You're not as clever as you think and you're not fooling anyone."

Melody rolled her eyes before walking into the kitchen, checking on the chicken she had in the oven, knowing what Tony was really trying to say. He didn't want to be around her. Tony stood there for a moment, watching her walk off. He wanted to be close to her again, but he just didn't know how to get there again. And he was mad at her. He was so mad at her. But he loved her. He loved her so much. It was the worst situation he could have been in. He loved her, he wanted to be close, but he was so mad at her, he wasn't sure if they could ever be as close as they once were ever again.

 _ **I hope you guys liked this one! There will be a lot more Melody and Tony tension ahead and there may be a small bump in the road for Clint and Melody. Remember to review your thoughts and I'll see you next time!**_


	3. AIM

_**We're gonna be introducing a new character in this chapter and his name is Zeke Stane. Stane. Sounds familiar, doesn't it? He's portrayed by Garrett Hedlund. I hope you guys enjoy this one! Remember to review!**_

Melody wore a loose fitting black dress with a thin purple belt around her waist and glossy purple pumps. Pepper had a firm grip on her shoulders, making sure she wasn't going anywhere. "Why am I going to this thing?"

"Because you're a chair member." Pepper spoke obviously as both Melody and Pepper flashed their badges. The woman at the front nodded, letting them go by, causing Melody to roll her eyes. She had hoped that she wouldn't be recognized or maybe her badge was expired and she wouldn't be able to go into the building, but the stupid thing worked. "And chair members go to important meetings." Melody rolled her eyes and continued to walk with her. "This is going to be a fun meeting."

Melody shook her head, looking to Pepper as their heels clacked in synch. "In what world are meetings fun?"

"This is an inventive meeting." She told her with a happy smile, stopping in front of her. "Where you meet people with new ideas."

Melody gave her a tired stare along with a sigh. "I really don't want to do this."

"Well too bad." Pepper spoke while looping her arm through hers while Melody groaned behind her.

As soon as they rounded the corner, they ran into Happy. "Hey!" He spoke excitedly, seeing Melody for the first time since she left Malibu.

"Happy!" She called excitedly, hurrying into his arms. She smiled to herself, knowing she still had to get on her tip toes to hug him, even in these heels. With a simple wrap of the arms, he had enveloped her, causing a big smile to spread across her face. She really did miss his hugs.

"You're disappearing on me." He spoke, trying to hold on tighter. He really missed having her around all the time. He pulled away from her, looking her up and down, noticing her muscular arms out of everything. "Damn, you've been training without me?"

Melody scoffed while punching him in the arm. "You expect me to get weak on you?"

He laughed anyway, but he was still worried about her. This was his little girl too. "How about an AM sparring session tomorrow?"

Melody nodded excitedly with a cocky look on her face. There was the Stark. "Sure I haven't gotten too tough for you?"

He scoffed at her this time, Pepper looking between the two with a happy smile on her face. "You're talking to the person who taught you everything you know."

Melody let out a happy sigh, excited that she was just back here. Back with her first family. "I've missed you, Hogan."

He put his arm around her, guiding Pepper the way they were going as well. "I missed you too, Mel."

Through their whole walk to the meeting room, Pepper was bamboozled with people, asking to talk to her about things and sign things all while Happy was talking to her about the left over robots Tony has lying around. And she maintained complete focus. Melody admired Pepper for that. She wouldn't be able to do that. She could do that in a fight any day, but not in an office. "Tony has got them in his basement." Pepper stopped for a moment, signing a paper, Melody finally getting the hang of when to stop and when to keep walking around here. "They're wearing party hats. This is an asset we can put to use."

"Uh huh." She spoke while finally turning to look at him through the walk. "So you're suggesting that I replace the entire janitorial staff with robots?"

"What I'm saying is that the human element of Human Resources is our biggest point of vulnerability. We should start phasing it out immediately."

"What?!" Pepper screamed at him as he moved ahead, asking for people's badges. "Did you just say that?"

Melody wasn't even listening to the last sentence, she was too distracted by the blasphemy she saw before her eyes. "What the hell is this?"

They both stopped, looking to what she was looking at. "The Stark Christmas tree." Pepper spoke obviously.

She shook her head, not being able to take her eyes off the tree or even believe what was happening. "Yeah, I know what it is." She turned to the two with wide eyes. "Why the hell is the star on top?"

They both continued to look at her, at loss for why she was so confused. "Stars usually go on the top of Christmas trees, Mel." Happy spoke obviously.

She turned back to the tree, her face falling at what she was seeing. "It's my job to put the star on top." She whispered to herself, knowing it probably wasn't loud enough for the rest of them to hear. She understood why they went ahead and put it up without her. It's not like she was around to do it. But she still felt this pang in her chest about the fact that they had done this without her.

"Happy," Pepper spoke with a smile while putting her hand on his arm. "I am thrilled that you are now the Head of Security, okay? It is the perfect position for you."

"Thank you." He spoke to her with a wide smile, Melody finally turning around, but her spirits definitely down after that.

"However – "

"I do appreciate it."

"Since you have taken the post," Pepper began as Melody let a slight smile pass over her face. She knew this conversation was going to happen sooner or later.

"You don't have to thank me." Happy told her with the shake of the head.

"We've had a rise in staff complaints by _three hundred_ percent."

Happy gave her a happy shrug while Melody tried to hide behind her smile. "That's not a compliment."

Happy's face immediately dropped. "'That's not a compliment.'" He quoted dumbfounded. "It is a compliment! Clearly, someone is trying to hide something."

Pepper gave him a confused face, about to tell him something when she was interrupted by her PA. "Miss. Potts, your four o'clock is here."

"Thank you." Pepper told her with a polite nod as Happy began to talk over her, wondering if she had cleared this meeting with him. "Happy," Pepper spoke with a happy smile, getting him to look back at her. "We'll talk about this later, but right now I have to deal with this very annoying thing."

"How so?" He asked as Pepper put her arm around Melody, guiding her along, making sure she wasn't going to run away.

"I used to work with him, and he used to ask me out all the time, so it's a little awkward."

"I don't like the sound of that." Happy told her with an intense shake of the head.

Melody turned to Pepper, the pieces finally clicking in her head. "So that's why you wanted me in on this meeting."

"No." Pepper turned to her excitedly, knowing this was going to be her favorite part of the day as she opened the door to her office. "If I was gonna do some suffering, so were you."

Melody scoffed. "What the hell is that supposed to – "

She had to stop mid-sentence as they both turned to look at who was sitting in their office. Pepper was faced with a much more attractive co-worker than what she had before while Melody was greeted with the first face she ever fell for. "Killian?" Pepper asked, completely shocked.

"Zeke." Melody whispered while looking him up and down, getting those bubbly feelings of being a teenager all over again. She loved Clint. That was true love, but what she had with Zeke was puppy love and you always remembered puppy love.

"Pepper." Killian spoke while standing up with a fake shocked face on.

"Melody." Zeke whispered, looking her up and down the same way she had, remembering those same feelings.

"You look great." Killian spoke as he looked Pepper up and down, but Zeke and Melody just continued to stare at each other. "You look really great."

"God," Pepper gasped. "You look really great."

As Pepper stuttered through talking to him, Melody walked up to Zeke, studying his face all over. "I'm sorry about your dad." She finally said, not knowing what else to say. How do you put six years of no contact into words?

He sighed, giving her a slight shrug. "I'm sorry about what my dad did to you."

She looked to him, finally finding the words she had wanted to say to him. "Why didn't you call?"

Zeke shook his head, not knowing what to say to her. "I was out of the country when it happened and – "

"I'm not talking about what Obadiah did." His eyes got just as soft as hers had, knowing what she had meant the first time, but not wanting to answer her. "Six years ago, why didn't you call, Zeke?"

Zeke opened his mouth, not knowing what to say when Happy spoke, tearing them out of their moment to turn to him. "Uh, you were supposed to be issued a security badge."

"Happy." Pepper spoke as Melody let out a small smile, turning back to them, but Zeke just couldn't stop looking at her. "It's okay."

"Yes?" He asked, not taking his eyes off Pepper.

Melody looked back over to Zeke, but quickly looked away when he noticed he was still staring at her. He smiled at her, realizing that even though she had been through a lot since they had been separated, she was still the same old Melody. She couldn't help herself, though. He got even more handsome with age. That blonde hair was quaffed back, his chin was filled with blonde stubble and his eyes were still that piercing blue she had dreams about. "We're good."

"You sure?"

Melody rolled her eyes as she moved over to Pepper and Happy, getting right into Happy's ear. "Yes. Stand down."

Happy had an awful feeling about these two together, though. And he felt like he knew Aldrich Killian. "I'm going to linger."

"Thank you." Melody spoke with an eye roll.

"Right here, okay?" They both nodded and gave him a wave before looking back to the two.

"It's very nice to see you, Killian." Pepper spoke while moving over to her desk as Melody followed.

The two men both stared at the two women, though, their eyes lingering a lot longer than they should have before joining them on the opposite couch. "After years dodging the president's ban on 'immoral biotech research.'" Pepper and Melody both shared a slight glance before looking back to the pair. "My think tank has now had a little something in the pipeline."

Killian set a small projector type object on the glass table, causing Melody to give him a confused stare. "It's something we like to call Extremis." Zeke spoke excitedly, looking over to Melody, but she still just wasn't sure how to feel about any of this.

Killian put something behind his ear and grabbed a remote, looking to the girls, giving them each a winning smile. "I'm gonna turn your lights down." With the click of the button, the lights immediately went down, causing Melody to look around with a confused glance. She looked back to Zeke, hoping her confused stare would give her some answers, but he just gave her an excited smile. "Regard the human brain."

With a quick flick of the wrist, Killian rolled three balls onto the table, all three of them beginning to project in the space around them. "Uh, wait." Zeke spoke, causing Melody to look back to him with an impressed smile. "That's the galaxy." He gave her a wink and her heart began to melt. With another click of the remote, the picture around them changed. She looked up at it, Zeke smiling at her excitement. "That's the brain."

"Strangely memetic, though, wouldn't you say?" Killian asked, his eyes glued on Pepper.

"Wow," She spoke, looking all around just like Melody was. "That's amazing."

"Thanks," Killian spoke. "It's mine."

They both turned to him with a confused face. "What?"

"This…" He spoke, moving his finger around, signaling the space around him as Melody turned back to look at it. "You're inside my head. It's a live feed." Killian began to climb up onto the table and then reached out for Pepper's hand. "Come on, I'll prove it to you."

She did as he said, causing Melody to give Pepper an upset look. Now she realized she was doing the same thing with Zeke. She shook her head, promising to herself that she was not going to be attracted to Zeke and she most definitely wasn't going to try to find out what happened between them so long ago. She had moved on. She was in love with someone new and she knew this love was going to last until she died.

"Come on up, Melody." Killian spoke, reaching his hand out for her to join him.

She knew she had totally missed out on something they had all just talked about, but she shook her head, took Killian's hand like the professional she was and joined the two as Zeke stayed on his spot on the couch, remembering how good it was when he could call Melody his. "Now," Killian spoke as he began to zoom into his brain. "Extremis harnesses our bioelectrical potential."

He began to point at one dark part of the brain, making Melody turn her head to the side. "And it goes here." She nodded, following so far, but this all still seemed kind of weird to her. "This is essentially an empty slot, and what this tells us is that our mind," He stopped, chuckling to himself at how amazing this all was. "Our entire DNA in fact, is destined to be upgraded."

"Wow." Pepper whispered, completely shocked just like Melody was.

* * *

Clint got a late start to the day. It was the longest he had a full sleep with no nightmares waking him up. So he slept late. Real late. Into-the-afternoon late. Clint walked down the stairs, remembering staying here with Melody when Tony was missing. This place had become like a home to him as well, but he knew he would never love this place as much as Melody.

He scratched his head, adjusting the jeans he had just put on as a yawn raked his body. There was the sound of drilling under him and he knew there was only one person who would be doing that. It was actually the one person who was here. Tony Stark.

Clint took a deep breath as he began to walk downstairs, knowing this would be a perfect time to ask Tony the question that had been burning in his mind for a few months. He was just scared to do it, not sure how he would react at all.

When he made it down the steps, Tony stopped drilling, looking up to see him. "Hey." He called.

Clint gave him a smile, his hands still buried in his pockets. "Hey." He breathed out, beginning to absentmindedly play with one of Tony's inventions.

"What brings you downstairs?" Tony asked, moving his goggles on top of his head just like you would do with sunglasses, moving to stand next to Clint. This was it. Clint took a deep breath, getting up the courage to finally ask him the question he knew he needed to ask. "Wait," Tony spoke, pulling out his tablet, causing Clint to take a breath of relief, knowing he didn't have to ask him right in this moment made him feel so much better. "Let's call Happy. You haven't even seen Happy."

Clint smiled and nodded. He really did miss that guy and Tony really did seem lonely down here. He assumed he wanted to get as much people around him as quick as he could, but for some reason, he didn't want Melody around him. "The best part is that Happy is ridiculously awful at technology." He began laughing as the tablet rang, causing Clint to give him a wide smile. He did love seeing Tony happy. That had never changed.

Happy fumbled with his tablet as it rang, pulling it all the way up before answering it. "Hello?"

"Yes," Tony spoke, trying to hold back his laugh as Clint looked to him with a happy smile on his face. "Is this the forehead of security?"

Happy rolled his eyes, bringing the tablet down so they could actually see his face. "Look, I've got a real job now. What do you want? I'm working. I've got something going on here."

"Look!" Tony spoke excitedly, pointing the camera to Clint with a huge smile on his face, causing Clint to roll his eyes and give a wave along with a smile. "Clint's here."

"Hey, Clint." Happy told him with a smile.

"What's going on, Happy?" Clint missed him too. He missed the whole Stark gang and he was really happy they were all together again, but Melody was miserable here. That's what made it hard.

"What do you have going on?" Tony asked, pulling the tablet back to him while moving the fridge. "Harassing interns?"

"Let me tell you something," Happy began as Clint followed Tony. "You know what happened when I told people I was Iron Man's bodyguard? They would laugh in my face." Tony let out an evil laugh as he went down the stairs of his workshop. "I had to leave while I still had a shred of dignity. Now I've got a real job. I'm watching Pepper."

"What's going on over there? Fill me in." Tony asked as he sent his new Iron Man suit into the lower levels of the workshop, Clint continuing to watch in amazement.

"For real?"

"Yeah."

"Alright, so she's meeting up with this scientist…rich guy, handsome. I couldn't make his face at first and you know I'm good with faces."

"Oh, yeah," Tony spoke, humoring him. "You're the best."

The suit finally disappeared, Clint looking over to Tony with wide eyes. "That was amazing."

Tony gave him a proud nod before looking back to his tablet. "So I run his credentials, I make him. Aldrich Killian. We actually met the guy." Tony moved to sit down so Clint leaned on the arm rests, trying to get a good look at Happy along with Tony. "Where were we in '99? The science conference?"

"Switzerland." Clint spoke immediately, causing them both to look to him with a confused face. "Bern. Melody told me something about that yesterday."

"Right, right." Tony spoke, looking back to the tablet. "Killian. I don't remember that guy."

"Of course you don't remember." Happy spoke with an eye roll. "He's not a blonde with a big rack." Tony looked to Happy with an annoyed face as Clint shrugged, knowing he was right. "At first it was fine. They were just talking business, but now it's getting weird. He's showing her his big brain."

"His, what?" Tony asked, not understanding at all, even Clint had to turn his head at that one and he had experienced aliens coming out of a portal from the sky.

"Big brain." Happy emphasized. "And you'll never guess who his partner is." Happy spoke, excitedly, almost forgetting about the extra addition.

"Who?" Tony asked, kind of wanting to know, but also not really.

"Zeke Stane."

"What the hell?" Tony asked with a half laugh.

Clint began to look between the two, getting nervous. "Wasn't that Melody's first love?"

Tony turned to look back to Clint, giving him a reassuring smile. " _Puppy_ love. She hasn't talked to the guy in about five years."

"Six." Happy corrected.

"Whatever." Tony spoke, looking back to the tablet. "Point is that it doesn't matter anymore."

"I don't know." Happy spoke, looking back to the office. "She seemed to go back into her teenage state when she saw him." Clint gave him a worried look, but Tony tossed his hand at him, trying to tell him it was no big deal. "But they like his big brain." Tony rolled his eyes at him. "Here, I'll show you." Happy lifted the tablet up and tried to turn the screen, but it wasn't working. "See?"

"What?" Tony asked, kind of getting worried now. "Look at what? You watching them? Flip the screen and then we can get started."

"I'm not a tech genius like you." He told him, flustered. "Just trust me, get down here."

"It's not that hard, Hap." Clint spoke. "Just flip the screen, and then we can get started."

"I don't know how to flip the screen!" He yelled, embarrassed about that fact. "And both of you can't talk to me like that. You're not my boss." Tony began looking up Aldrich Killian, wanting to see who this guy was by himself now. "I don't trust these guys. I knew Zeke when he was a kid and this is not who he used to be. He's changed. I don't know how, but he's changed. They've got another guy with them, he's shifty."

"Relax." Tony spoke, but he was having the same fear as Happy and so was Clint.

"Seriously?" Happy asked him, completely annoyed.

"I'm just asking you to secure the perimeter." Tony spoke, starting to walk around the area. Clint knew that was another nervous tell. Melody did the exact same thing. "Tell him to go out for a drink or something."

"You know what?" Happy spoke, getting annoyed with him. "You should take more of an interest in what's going on here. These woman are the best things that ever happened to you and you're just ignoring them." Tony took a deep breath, knowing he was right, but he wasn't going to admit it. "Oh, and I heard about what happened with you and Melody yesterday. Dick move, dude."

"Is there still a big brain?" Tony asked, trying to get his mind off the subject of what happened with Melody, but Clint still picked up on it.

"Yeah," Happy practically yelled out. "There's a big brain and there's a shifty character here. I'm going to follow this guy. I'm going to run his plates and if it gets rough, so be it."

Tony looked back to the tablet while getting out a bottle of wine, knowing he was going to bring this meeting up to Pepper and Melody along with Clint's help. "I miss you, Happy."

"Yeah, I miss you too," He spoke in a kind of sad voice. "But the way it used to be. Now you're off with the 'super friends.'" He looked over to Clint who he could barely see on the screen. "No offence, Clint." Clint simply waved his hand at him, a tired look on his face from everything he had just heard about Melody and her first love meeting again. "I don't know what's going on with you anymore. The world's getting weird – "

"Hey I hate to cut you off," Tony spoke while putting the tablet into the fridge. "Do you have your taser on you?"

"Why?" He asked, genuinely curious.

"I think there's a gal in HR who is trying to steal some printer ink. You should probably go over there and zap her."

Happy rolled his eyes at him, realizing that Tony had closed the fridge door on him. "Yeah, nice."

Clint reached inside, pulled out the tablet and waved to him. "See ya, Hap."

"See ya, Clint."

Clint followed Tony back up the stairs and into the main workshop, just worried about what was going to happen to Mel if Zeke wormed his way back in. "Hey, Tony," Tony half turned around, still walking. "Melody broke up with Zeke, right?"

Tony stopped walking, turning around to him, not really sure how to answer that question. "Yeah." Tony was mostly trying to reassure him. "In a way."

Clint blinked a couple of times. "What do you mean 'in a way'?"

"Well," Tony dragged the word out, not sure if he wanted to tell him this or if he wanted to wait for Melody to tell him. "Zeke's mom died and he kind of just shut everyone out."

"So he just stopped talking to her?"

Tony shrugged. "Yeah, in a way."

"Why do you keep saying 'in a way'?!"

Tony placed his hand on Clint's shoulder, taking a deep breath, knowing Clint was flustered about this, but this was just making Clint more nervous. "Let her tell you."

* * *

They were all sitting down in the office again, a table separating the boys from the girls, just how Melody and Pepper liked it. "Imagine if you could hack into the hard drive of any living organism and recode its DNA." Aldrich gave them both an excited smile, but Melody and Pepper both thought that this was just going too far.

"It would be incredible." Pepper told him with a polite nod, giving Melody a relived breath that they were on the same page about this. "Unfortunately, to my ears it also sounds highly weaponizable as in enhanced soldiers, private armies." Killian's face went down, but he kept his smile on.

"And Tony," Melody spoke, looking to Pepper who gave her an encouraged nod to continue. "Is not – "

"Tony, Tony." Melody turned her head to the side, not sure where this was coming from. How did he even know her uncle? "You know, I invited Tony to join AIM," He began to act like he was thinking of the year, but he knew the exact year. "Thirteen years ago." Melody blinked a little and looked over to Zeke, knowing that he _knew_ what happened thirteen years ago. Zeke just looked away from her. None of this was starting to feel right to Melody. Something was definitely off. "He turned me down, but something tells me now there is a new genius on the throne, who doesn't have to answer to Tony anymore, and who has slightly less of an ego."

Pepper knew he was right, but what he wasn't understanding was that she thought this idea, if in the wrong hands, could be very, very bad. "It's gonna be a 'no', Aldrich." She gave him a nod with a slight smile. "As much as I'd like to help you."

Melody looked back and forth at Pepper and Aldrich, deciding she had to intervene before Aldrich kept talking, trying to make his case even more and try to persuade them. She stood up, giving both Aldrich and Zeke a smile. "We'll walk you out."

The walk was silent, both of their guards going ahead of them to get their cars. "Well," Zeke spoke as they walked out the door together, looking to Melody with a killer smile she had to roll her eyes to. "We can't say that we're not disappointed."

"Well," Aldrich said, looking over to Zeke, but his eyes drifting to Pepper. "As my father used to say, 'failure is the fog through which we glimpse triumph.'"

"That's very deep." Pepper spoke with an impressed nod. "And I have no idea what it means."

"Zeke," Melody spoke, taking his attention away from the conversation Pepper and Aldrich were having. "Can I speak to you for a moment?"

She began to walk a few feet away from the two as they continued their conversation. Right when they were face to face, Melody searched every inch of his face. "What the hell are you doing?"

He looked to her, confused at what she was asking and then back at Aldrich and Pepper, making sure they were still talking. "What are you talking about, Mel?"

"I'm talking about this guy." She practically spit it out, looking at Aldrich like he was an enemy. "He's…" She just couldn't think of the words to use. Was there a word for what she was thinking of him?

"Melody," Zeke spoke, causing her to look back to him with the wild eyes of confusion. "I have to talk to you." She rolled her eyes, knowing she was going to have to explain all about Clint to him. "Not about _that_." Her brows furrowed in confusion at his urgency at what exactly he was talking about. "About this, about Killian." She turned her head to the side, looking him and down, realizing that he had seen it too. "Here," He fished in his pocket for a pen and paper, scribbling his number down quickly before handing the paper. "Call me and we can talk about this." Melody opened her mouth, not really sure what was going on, but Zeke leaned in, placed a kiss on her cheek and gave her a smile. "It was nice seeing you, Mel."

She watched him walk off with Killian, a confused look all over her face, not sure what any of this was. She had to know what was going on and Zeke seemed to be on the good side, but there was just something about him. He was different. This was not the Zeke she knew. He changed, but she had changed too. Maybe she was just over thinking, but SHIELD had taught her a lot. That the thoughts you come up with while over thinking are the thoughts that are usually the right ones.

 ** _What do you guys think of Zeke? You'll find out what really happened between them in the next chapter and you'll find out a lot more about him through the story. I just want you to know that I'm not trying to have Melody leave Clint. She loves him. This is not going to become a love triangle story! I promise! Remember to review!_**


	4. Walking Dead

_**Okay, this chapter is a lot longer than my normal ones, but a whole lot of stuff happens in this one so I hope you like it! Remember to review! Enjoy!**_

Pepper and Melody were laughing when they pulled up in the car to the house, but they immediately stopped at what was waiting for them at the front of the house. "What the hell?" Melody finally spoke.

Pepper got out of the car, taking a deep sigh at the huge stuffed rabbit waiting for them by the fountain. "Tony." She sighed out.

Melody looked at her from across the car with a smile. "At least your life is adventurous."

Pepper rolled her eyes at her, but they both walked into the house together. "Sorry, I'm late." Pepper spoke as she continued to look through files, but Melody was slowing down at the sight in front of her. "I was – " Tony sat on the couch with a new red and gold Iron Man suit, but that wasn't even the shocking part. Clint was sitting right next to him in a purple and silver Iron Man suit. "What is that?!" Pepper screamed as both suits crossed their legs at the same time. "You're wearing this in the house now?"

Melody crossed her arms, looking back and forth at them. "And why does Clint have a suit?"

Clint thought about the suit throwing its hands and the air and it did just that. "Merry Christmas." Clint was loving this. He was actually thinking about bringing this one home.

"What is that?" Pepper asked as she sat down to take off her heels. "Mark 15 and 16?"

"Uh," Tony continued his pull ups, stopping slightly, knowing that Clint's was Mark 41 and his was Mark 42. "Yeah. Something like that." He stood up walking over to where Pepper had sat as Melody moved to where Clint was sitting. This was going to be the tricky part. "You know, everyone needs a hobby."

"And you two have to wear your hobby around the house?" Melody asked with her arms crossed.

"We're just breaking it in." Tony spoke, looking over to Melody as he continued his walk to Pepper. "You know, it's always a little pinchy in the GUI-bagger." Melody shut her eyes with a smile spreading on her face as Pepper laughed. "Hey," He spoke excitedly as he saw that Clint was beating him at the pull ups, causing him to do them faster, trying to catch up. "Did you see your Christmas present?" Clint looked over to Tony, picking up his pace as well.

Pepper looked over at Melody, giving her a smile from that question. "Yes, I did. I don't know how I could _miss_ that Christmas present." She began to pick up the mail, smiling at the fact that a lot of it was fan mail to Tony from kids. "Is it gonna fit through the door?"

Tony and Pepper continued talking as Melody looked over to Clint. "Speaking of Christmas presents, Pepper's already gotten hers."

Clint rolled his eyes as he looked away from her, trying to hide his smile, but then he remembered she couldn't see him. "Calm down, Mel."

"Oh, come on." She begged. She didn't even care about the present anymore. It was the anticipation, her want to know what it was. "Christmas presents never get given on Christmas."

"My Christmas presents do." He told her as he tapped her nose with his finger, really only doing it so Tony could see that he could do a one arm pull up.

Tony rolled his eyes, but his main thought was seeing if Pepper liked the gift or not. Melody, though, was confused by this whole thing. "Clint," She spoke in a cautious tone, causing him to look right back over to her. "Why don't you take off the mask and kiss me?"

She remembered talking to Tony about this possibility, but she didn't think he would actually do it. "I don't know how." He spoke in a cautious voice.

"Then," Melody spoke as she moved onto his lap. "Why don't I get it off for you?"

"You know, Mel – " Clint began, but she was already going to the button to open up the helmet.

"God dammit!" She yelled out, looking over to Pepper.

"Clint!" Tony scolded as Pepper turned to the empty suit with a dropped jaw just as Melody had gotten off him.

Melody moved to Pepper, taking her by the hand and down the stairs. "Wait," Tony spoke, the suits following them, finally getting Clint's suit's mask down. "There's been a radiation leak."

"I'll take my chances." Pepper skipped down the stairs after Melody, ready to catch them both in the act. Clint and Tony both continued to do aggressive pull ups, trying to beat each other out.

"That's risky." Clint spoke, but they didn't listen to him.

Pepper and Melody finally got down the steps, the two stopping once they saw there was no way avoiding it, getting down from the pull up bar. "I'll take you on again tomorrow." Tony promised as they turned around to the angry girls.

"This is a new level of lame." Pepper pushed Dummy out of the way while rolling her eyes at them as the suits joined the girls, Tony's on Pepper's right and Clint's on Melody's left.

"Sorry." Tony lifted his arms up as Clint just stood there, trying to avoid Melody's death glare.

Out of the corner of her eye, Melody caught sight of the two empty plates. "And you ate? Already? Without us? When we were all supposed to go out tonight?"

Tony pointed over to the suits, not knowing what to say. "They were just – "

"You mean _you_." Melody told him while putting her hands on her hips, completely annoyed with him more than she had been since she got here.

"Well," Tony spoke, at loss for words. That was a surprising one to Melody. "Yeah. I mean," He pointed back and forth from the suits to him and Clint. " _We_ were just hosting you – "

Pepper scoffed while throwing her hands in the air, knowing he wasn't going to make up for this easy. "Uh huh."

"While we were finishing up a little work." Clint butted in, not wanting Tony to take the full blame. He really did want to try it out.

Melody looked back to Clint, her glare just returning. "And yes," Tony agreed while looking to Clint, giving him a shrug. "We did have a quick bite. We didn't know if you were coming home or…" Clint shut his eyes and shook his head, knowing they were already pissed and didn't want to bring this up now. "If you were having drinks with Aldrich Killian and Zeke Stane."

Slowly, both Melody and Pepper's face began to straighten as the suit heads turned to look at them while Tony watched, ready to hear how they defended that, but Clint just shut his eyes, knowing this was going to be bad. Both Melody and Pepper's mouths dropped. They finally noticed the suits staring at them. Pepper turned to Tony's suit, just fed up with this whole situation she was in. "What?!" She yelled to the suit as Melody pushed the head back to the front. "Aldrich Killian!" Pepper yelled at him as Tony shrugged, but Melody still stood there. "What? Were you checking up on us today?"

"Happy was concerned."

"No, you're spying on me." Pepper told him angrily.

"Clint," Melody spoke loudly and suddenly. They all looked to her, Clint was the most panicked though. "Can I talk to you upstairs for a moment?"

Melody didn't even want to make sure he was following her, she honestly just wanted to get out of there. With a deep sigh, Clint followed, slowly, not sure he was ready for what she had to say. She didn't just stop at the living room, she continued all the way up to her room and once Clint had caught up with her, she sat down on the bed, looking up at him. "Ready to be the only person who knows what really happened between Zeke and me?"

Clint furrowed his eyebrows before looking around the room, completely confused. "You're not mad at me?"

"Oh, no." Melody spoke, shaking her head intensely. "I'm mad at you, but I thought you would like to know the truth since Tony has probably been manipulating you all day."

Clint took a deep sigh, not understanding what the problem was with these two lately. They were just constantly at each other's throats and it wasn't like them. To make matters worse, neither of them were talking about it to anyone. Everyone else just stood in the battlefield of their fight, hopelessly confused.

He moved to sit down next to his girlfriend anyway, knowing that this was probably going to be a hard subject for her to talk about. "He knew me ever since I was born and I always had a crush on him when I was growing up." She turned to Clint, rolling her eyes with a smile on her face because of that story. "It sounds like the beginning of a Taylor Swift song." She laughed a little bit when looking away, Clint remembering what it was like telling Melody about his first wife. "Zeke and I started dating when I was a freshman and he was a senior."

Clint chuckled a little bit as his eyes got wide. "And Tony was okay with that?"

Melody rolled her eyes and looked over to him. "When they're basically part of the family, it's kind of okay."

Clint smiled a little bit. "Like how I had already become a part of the family when Tony was away?"

She smiled to him while gripping his hand. She really did love him. It was impossible to ever stray away from him. "Exactly like that."

Clint gave her hand a light squeeze, knowing he didn't have to hear any of this to trust her. He knew she would never stray just like he wouldn't. "You don't have to tell me if you don't want to."

Melody sighed as she shook her head, giving him a gentle smile. "You've told me about your wives. I should at least tell you about my first love." She gave his hand a squeeze the same way he had before continuing. "So, it was my junior year of high school, his second year of college and the worst possible thing happened." She looked to him with a sad smile. "An accident happened at Stark Industries, resulting in a lot of employees being wounded and one dead."

Clint began to think back to reports on that accident, remember reading something about it, but he already knew who was going to be the one dead. "Zeke's mother? Obadiah's wife?"

"Yeah." Melody spoke while rubbing his hand with her thumb. "And it was awful." She looked off into space while shaking her head. "She was everything to Zeke and it destroyed him." She shook her head while turning her body to look at him fully. "That's not even the worst part." Clint turned his head to the side, not understanding how it could get even worse. "Zeke blamed Tony for it." She shook her head again, not wanting to think that he could be responsible for something that awful. "So, Zeke came to me one day and said he had a proposition." She looked right into Clint's eyes, knowing she had to tell _someone_ about what really happened; and who better than him? "He said that we should run off together, become bio chemists and find out what really happened to his mother."

Clint's eyes got wide, wondering how insanely different life would be for both of them if she had run off. "And you were gonna do it?"

Melody rolled her eyes, mostly at herself. "I was young, dumb and in love. Of course I was gonna do it." She shook her head then, looking down, remembering what had happened after that. "So I packed up my things and we were going to run away together."

Clint looked up at her, sympathetically, realizing how sad and confused she looked right now. "What happened?"

Melody rolled her eyes with a smile on her face. "The night of, Zeke was gonna call me when he was ready to come get me." She shook her head. "I waited in my room all night long, bags packed, ready to start our life on our own together. I took money out of the bank, a whole suitcase of it and I was waiting for a call…a call that _never_ came."

Clint's eyebrows furrowed, not totally understanding what had happened. "He never came to get you?"

Melody laughed and shook her head. "Not a call, not a text, not an email." She looked to him, her eyes still sad and confused. "Nothing." She took a deep breath before continuing. "That morning, Obadiah called me and asked me if I had seen Zeke. That all of his bags were packed, his car was gone and he hadn't seen him since four o'clock the previous day." She stared at Clint intently. "Four o'clock was when he left. He was supposed to wait for me. He was supposed to get me that _night_. He was supposed to call me." She shrugged while offering him a weak smile. "And he never did."

"You lied to everyone?"

Melody nodded while looking away from Clint. "Even Pepper." She looked back to Clint while shaking her head. "I told her everything, but I couldn't tell her _that_. It would just break her heart." She shrugged while taking a deep sigh. "I couldn't let Tony know for the same reason; so," She shrugged again, giving him that weak smile. "I never told anyone what really happened and I haven't seen him in six years from today."

Clint nodded, letting the information process. "I'm the only other person who knows the truth?"

"Yup." She spoke popping the P. She then turned back to him, getting serious again. "Here's my concern," Clint turned his head to the side at what she was going to tell him. "He thought it was Tony's fault that his mother died and him and Killian created this thing called Extremis and it can improve the DNA of anything, make it reach its full potential." Clint nodded, following, but she shook her head, causing him to turn his to the side again. "So, does that mean he's finally figured out what happened to his mother?" Clint opened his mouth, about to say something. "And if he finally figured it out, is it really Tony's fault?"

"And is he gonna go after him?" Clint finished the thought for her, causing her to nod while biting her lip.

"I can't let that happen." Clint nodded, agreeing with her one hundred present. "But…" He turned his head to the side, not sure where she was going with this. "If he keeps up this reckless attitude, putting any of us in danger, then we're going to have to leave."

* * *

Pepper turned back to Tony after Melody and Clint had hurried upstairs, her eyes burning from what had just happened. From what had been happening ever since Melody and Clint had come over to visit. "Now you pissed off Melody which you seem to be doing a lot lately." Tony opened his mouth to say something, but she just threw her hand at him. "I'm going to bed."

"Pep," Tony called out desperately as she began to walk off angrily. "Hey!" He called, his voice becoming breathy at the thought of losing her while throwing his hands up in the air. "I admit it." She turned around, looking at his sad, desperate face. "My fault. Sorry." He put his hands down, taking a deep breath. "I'm a piping hot mess." She began to go back to him, knowing he doesn't do things like this. "It's been going on for a while…I haven't said anything." He took a deep breath while crossing his arms, not sure what to say in that moment. "Nothing's been the same since New York."

"Oh, really?" She spoke sarcastically while throwing a hand to the two newest suits. "I didn't notice that. At all."

"You experience things," He spoke, finally putting his feelings from New York into words. "And then they're over and you still can't explain them?" He shook his head, still not knowing what words to use to explain any of this. "Gods, aliens, other dimensions…I'm just a man in a can." Pepper took a deep breath, trying to stay mad at him, but how could she when he was opening up like this? "The only reason I haven't cracked up is probably because you've moved in." He moved closer to her, Pepper gulping at what he was telling her. "Which is great. I love you. I'm lucky." He took a deep breath, getting even closer, trying to tell her how intense this situation was with him. "But, honey, I can't sleep." She continued to look at him, this time more sorry for him as he turned around to look at his suits. "You go to bed, I come down here. I do what I know; I tinker."

He turned back to her, leaning slightly on his bench, knowing that just telling her what was going on was a huge step for him. "The threat is imminent. And I have to protect the one thing I can't live without…that's you." He pointed to her, taking a deep breath. "And that's Mel and Clint." He took a deep breath, rubbing his arm, not sure what to say next. "And my suits, they're…ugh…"

"Machines." She spoke for him, trying to be reasonable with him.

"They're part of me."

Pepper stood there for a moment, moving closer to him. "It's a distraction."

Tony let out deep breaths with a shrug. "Maybe."

"And you're pushing Melody away."

Tony sighed, trying to look everywhere, but at Pepper. "I know."

Pepper inched closer, wanting to be cautious with him. "Why are you doing this to her?"

Tony blinked a couple of times, trying to keep tears from falling out of his eyes. "I don't know." It was a lie and he knew it, but he couldn't just say it out loud.

She moved even closer to him, putting her hands on his face, forcing him to look at her. "Promise you'll do better with her?"

Tony looked up at her, smiling the best he could. "I promise."

With that, Pepper rubbed the sides of his face, Tony finding himself burying his head into her chest. Pepper took deep breaths as she felt his hair tickle her chin and Tony finding all the comfort in her warmth. Pepper finally pulled up, pulling his device to control the suit without being in it off of his head. She rubbed his face as he looked up at her in full amazement. She gave him a slight smile, hoping he would catch on to what she was about to say. "I'm going to take a shower." Tony nodded, knowing it was reasonable as she walked off, but he also felt it was odd. She rolled her eyes when she realized he wasn't following, turning around to look back to him. "And you're gonna join me."

Tony hit his hand on the desk with a smile spreading across his face. "Better."

* * *

Melody had her arm draped around Clint's waist as she slept, but Clint couldn't find sleep in him. He just laid there, looking up at the ceiling, thinking back on what Melody had said. Yes, Tony could be reckless, but she had never even thought about giving up on him. They're relationship had been awful lately. That wasn't a mystery, but Clint didn't want to pry. He wanted _her_ to come to _him_ about what was bothering her with Tony, but she hadn't yet. He thought she would for sure talk to him about it before they got here, but he was still left confused.

He could have asked Tony, but he wanted the information to come from Melody. If she even knew why they were mad at each other. It was all just so random. They were fine when they each left New York. The first few weeks, they were great. Slowly, though, the calls didn't come as often and if they did, they usually got into a fight in three minutes flat. Then, the calls just stopped. He tried to subtly mention it, asking how Tony was these days, but she would simply shrug or avoid the question completely. She even cut Pepper out.

She was worrying him. She was turning colder. His worry was if it was this fight with Tony that was making her colder or SHIELD. The missions, the people, the isolation. It could take a toll on you, but he was praying it wouldn't take a toll on Melody. Sure, she had changed since they first met, but it was all good changes. She wasn't as naïve. She was stronger (both emotionally and physically). All the innocence and insecurities in her was replaced with insight and confidence. He loved that he had seen her grow, but he never wanted to see her turn cold.

Suddenly, he was torn out of his thoughts when he heard the door burst open. She gripped onto him tighter and sat up along with him, both of them reaching for where the closest weapon was to them, in each other their nightstand drawers. "Melody, Clint." It was Tony's voice, causing them both to turn to their lamps, immediately turning them on to see a panicked Tony hurrying to them. "Happy's been hurt."

"What?!" Melody practically screamed out.

"He's in the hospital." They both sat there, frozen for a moment, not sure what to do. It was all just so sudden. "Come on, we've got to go." Tony helped Melody out of the bed as Clint followed, but they were both still in shock. Pepper was putting her shoes on as Melody grabbed her nearby boots and Clint his flip flops. Melody and Clint brought their bags, planning to change out of their pajamas at the hospital while Tony and Pepper were already in new clothes.

The drive was quiet. Too quiet. Tony drove with Pepper in the passenger's seat and Clint and Melody in the back. Tony was just trying to focus on the road as best as he could. Pepper, she planned on what she was going to do to keep everyone at bay. Clint and Melody held hands in the back. Melody was wondering how he even got into this mess while Clint thought back on what Happy was talking about while they were video chatting. _I'm going to run his plates and if it gets tough, so be it_.

When they got to the hospital, reporters were already crawling the place; so, in no time, they were mobbed. Tony put his arm around Melody, shutting them out with his jacket, Pepper and Clint the most surprised because of this random affection being shown, but to Tony and Melody, this was like second nature. They were both just so used to it, they forgot they were fighting for a moment.

Once they got inside the hospital, a nurse hurried to them while the security guards moved the block the reporters from getting inside the hospital. The place was a mad house. Nurses were hurrying all around, trying to tend to those who were affected by the explosion. Melody was sent back to New York. She was thinking about the innocent civilians running around, the huge eel like craft moving its way through the city. It all moved in slow motion for her while she tried not to freak out. It was all the same to her. Everything was moving in slow motion.

Her breath quickened and her hands were just shaking uncontrollably right before her. Clint turned to her, noticing the effects taking place. He hurried to her, grabbing her hands tightly, but she was still just shaking. Her entire body. "Melody," He spoke calmly, getting her to look up at him. "You are in a hospital." She shut her eyes tight, letting out a panicked cry while Clint turned around. Both Tony and Pepper were so caught up with making sure Happy was okay, they didn't even notice Melody. He saw their backs hurrying down a hall the nurse was pointing them to.

Clint turned back to Melody, not sure what to do. If he told her what was happening, her anxiety attack would just increase, but that was the only way he knew to get rid of it. "What's wrong with her?" A nurse asked, coming up behind him.

He turned his head to her, but his eyes stayed on Melody, her breath as quick as possible and her cries continuing. "She has panic attacks."

"Let me." The nurse said, moving Clint aside before he could even object. She was holding both Melody's hands, easing her down on the ground, but in the middle of the hectic hospital, you couldn't even notice what was happening. "What's her name?" She asked while turning over to Clint.

"Melody." He spoke instantly, feeling completely hopeless in that moment. "Melody Barnes." He couldn't protect her now. What made him think he could protect her if they got married?

"Melody," The nurse began. "Can you breathe?" Through the gasps, she shook her head, sending a pang into his chest. "Okay, sweetie, I'm gonna have you hold your breath." Melody nodded as more tears streamed down her cheeks. "Ready, one, two, three." Melody sucked in, holding her breath in. "Good." The nurse assured while rubbing her back gently. "Now, I want you to think of a happy moment that took your breath away. It could be any moment you would like."

Melody's eyes were still shut, her breath was held in and she knew the one moment that would be perfect. When she was falling through the air, sure that this was going to be it for her, but then Clint came in with his arrow holding him up on a building, catching her just in time. Sure, the jerk of the head hurt like hell, but it was a perfect moment knowing that the one person she would love until the end of time had caught her in his arms, saving her from death, the first time they had been in each other's arms since their kiss on the rooftop three months prior.

With that thought in her mind, the gasps stopped. She could breathe again and she finally had a better grip on reality and herself. Her eyes opened like it was nothing and that was the first time she saw the nurse that was there to help her. She had dark skin, her hair cut to her scalp and her eyes were wide, the color a dark brown you could get lost into. Melody let out deep gasps, not the quick ones she had made before. She was so thankful for this woman and this was the first time they had ever met. "Thank you." Melody spoke in a breathy voice, still getting over how out of breath you became from not breathing.

"No problem." She told her with a sweet smile before getting up to help the hundreds of other people running around the lobby.

Clint hurried to Melody, helping her up from the back by pulling up her arms. She turned around, finding herself putting her hands on his chest while looking up at him as he held her close, searching every inch of her face. "I thought of you." She told him breathlessly. "When you caught me in New York."

He pulled her in by the neck, giving her a passionate kiss. It was a kiss they hadn't shared in a while. A kiss that showed each other just how much they loved each other. It was their favorite kiss and it was a kiss that each of them desperately needed.

* * *

They all sat in Happy's hospital room, not knowing what to do. He was in a comma. It was now up to him. There was nothing the doctors could do. There was nothing _they_ could do. It all came down to Happy and if he wanted to come out of that comma.

Downton Abbey was playing in the background, each of them knowing how much he loved the show. Well, it was playing in the background until the piercing sound of the Mandarin's propaganda came on. They all looked to the TV, Melody shutting her eyes at the thought of this happening again.

The riots came on the screen, the shooting of guns, and the chaos. "True story about fortune cookies." He spoke, sitting in a grand chair. "They look Chinese, they sound Chinese, but they are actually an American invention." Melody and Clint shared a worried look, knowing the SHIELD line was about to ring off the hook before looking back to the television. "Which is why they're hollow, full of lies, and leave a bad taste in your mouth." He had a bowl of fortune cookies in front of him, cracking each of them with his fist on the table. "My disciples just destroyed another cheap, American knock off. The Chinese theater." Melody grinded her teeth and made a fist, so hard she was sure she would be able to break someone's hand with it.

Pictures of the Chinese Theater being burnt down flashed before their eyes and the videos of the police and ambulance taking people away while the fire department tried to stop the ongoing fire. Something caught Clint's eye while the paramedics wheeled someone off. "That's Happy." He spoke, causing all of them to look back to Happy, not knowing what to do, knowing it was kind of their fault.

"Mr. President," They all looked back to the TV, knowing that this was getting out of hand. "I know this must be getting frustrating, but this season of terror is coming to a close." Kids rushed up to him, giving him huge hugs, making them all sick to their stomach that this monster was being let around people's children. "The big one is coming. Your graduation." He shot a picture of the president right in the head, making Pepper jump and look away from the screen, becoming disgusted.

Suddenly, the Mandarin's symbol came on the television again, making them all just as angry as the start of the video had made them. Tony and Melody looked to each other, seething in their anger, knowing that if no one was going to stop this, then they had to. Clint and Pepper then looked to each other, knowing what each of them were thinking. "I'm gonna head home." Pepper spoke as she stood up, straightening out her jeans. "Get some stuff ready for the next few days."

Melody and Tony looked up from their look in that moment to nod at each other, knowing that they really needed to just be with each other in that moment. "I'll go too." Clint spoke, picking up on them finally wanting to be alone together for the first time. Pepper placed a kiss on Tony's head as Clint did the same to Melody before walking out the door.

The two continued to sit there, knowing what they had to do without saying anything to each other. It was like they were on the same wavelength all over again. Suddenly, a nurse came in, alerting them both, but she didn't seem to notice them and they couldn't blame her, the two kind of just blended into the darkness. Especially now.

She moved up to Happy's monitor, checking on his vitals. That's when she noticed the TV on. She moved for the remote, about to turn it off until Tony spoke. "Hi." He spoke in as cheery of a voice as he could maintain.

"Oh," She spoke, alarmed by their presence, Melody peeking out to smile at the woman. "Uh…"

"Mind leaving that on?" Melody asked while crossing her arms in the big sweater she was still in, not changing like she had planned to do earlier.

The nurse smiled, knowing exactly who those two were. "Sure."

Tony stood up, followed by Melody, Tony crossing his arms the same way she had. "PBS. Downton Abbey." Tony spoke while shrugging, not sure if she thought the same of the show like Happy had. "That's his show. He thinks it's elegant."

"Oh," Melody spoke, remembering something the nurse should know something about him. "Make sure everyone wears badges. He's a stickler for that sort of thing."

"Plus, our guys won't let anyone in without them."

Melody gave her a smile, moving in to touch her on the arm, the nurse looking to her as if her eyes were about to pop out of her head. She just couldn't believe that _the_ Melody Barnes, aka, Dark Violet was touching her arm. "Thank you for everything you're doing. We do appreciate it."

The two made their way out of the hospital, the two getting attacked by the paparazzi once again. Tony did the same thing he had done before, shielding Melody's eyes from the bright lights so no one would catch a shot of her tear stained face while Tony had his sunglasses on, hoping no one would get a clear shot of his face either.

They could push past everyone, ignore every comment and question until one guy pushed his way through them with his phone, getting it right up in their faces. "Mr. Stark, Miss. Barnes, when's somebody gonna kill this guy?" They both stopped, almost getting in their car, home free. Melody looked to Tony from the passenger's side of the car while he was standing on the driver's side. "I'm just saying."

Tony turned around to him, Melody shutting her eyes, knowing exactly what he was going to do. "Is that what you want?"

"Tony." Melody tried to speak to get his attention, but he either didn't hear her or chose not to answer her, knowing exactly what she was going to do.

"Here's a little holiday greeting I've been wanting to send to the Mandarin. I just didn't know how to phrase it until now." The guy holding the phone gave him a cocky smug stare, causing Melody to get a glare on her face, knowing this was just egging him on. "My name is Tony Stark and I'm not afraid of you. I know you're a coward." He took his sunglasses off, causing Melody to cross her arms. "So I've decided that you just died, pal. I'm gonna come get the body."

"Tony," Melody spoke, almost forcefully. "Let's go."

"No, Mel," Tony spoke, not even taking his eyes off the crowd. "There's no politics here; it's just good old-fashioned revenge." She rolled her eyes at him. Sure, she wanted to take on the Mandarin too, but not out loud like this. "There's no Pentagon; there's just you and me. And the off chance you're a man, here's my home address…" Melody's mouth dropped, hurrying over to the other side, trying to stop him in any way possible, but he had already made up his mind. "10880 Malibu Point." He gave him a happy smile as Melody was trying to push him into the car, but he just wouldn't budge. "90265. I'll leave the door unlocked."

He finally got into the driver's seat willingly, causing Melody to just look at the culprit, egging him on. She took his phone, getting right up in his face. "That's what you wanted, right?" He didn't know what to say with her up in his face like that, knowing she could probably break his skull right here and now if she wanted to. Without any other words, she chucked the phone straight across from her, the phone hitting the brick wall right where she was aiming. Everyone gasped, but she was just looking right back to the owner of the phone. "Bill me."

The paparazzi went into a frenzy as she opened the car door, giving Tony an angry stare. "Move over. I'm driving." He did as she said without another word, still angry about that guy and still on a high from his threat he just gave to the whole world.

Melody honked as loudly as she could, moving forward slightly until the paparazzi got out of the line of her path. She then put the car into fourth gear, whipping out of the parking area and getting on the highway as fast as possible. "You're mad." Tony spoke.

"No." Melody spoke, almost sarcastically. "I'm furious at you." She shook her head, trying her best just to focus on the road in front of her. "God, Tony, you don't think!"

"And you don't act!" He yelled right back, moving his body so he could get right in her face. "You wanted to go after the Mandarin too, so don't act like I did some awful thing."

"Yes!" Melody spoke, her eyes still glued on the road, not finding herself having the strength to look over at him in that moment. "I want to go after the Mandarin, but privately, not publicly for the whole world to see!"

"Oh, what? Like SHIELD does?!"

"YES!" She finally just screamed at him, not knowing what else to say.

"We've tried that before with Loki!" He yelled right back. "And that ended up with the biggest battle the world has ever seen!"

She just growled while pulling on the steering wheel, wanting to kill him for his reckless stupidity. "You _gave_ him our home address! You live there! _I_ live there! _Pepper_ lives there! _Clint_ is there! You just put all of us in danger and you don't even care!" She let out a deep breath, her knuckles turning white from how hard she was gripping the steering wheel, knowing what she had to do. She knew how these people worked. She had to face these people time after time in SHIELD. They didn't care that they were killing people. They just didn't care. "You've just killed us all and you don't even know it yet." She had to leave.


	5. Derailed

_**Alright, guys, this chapter gets a little intense with the Melody and Tony fighting, but it's gotta go somewhere if they don't talk it out. And soon, they will talk everything out. Probably in the next chapter will be the big Tony and Melody talk. As usual, I hope you guys enjoy and remember to review!**_

Melody put on her leather boots, pulling the zipper up just as her phone rang. She laid on the bed, moving to the cover it was under. She looked to the contact picture with a smile before answering. "Hey, Steve."

"Hey." He spoke, his voice kind of heavy. "You sure you want to leave early?"

"Yes." Melody sighed out. "And don't think that just because you're older than me that I will listen to you." Melody let silence pass over them, causing her to develop a sad smile. "How's my boy?"

"Lucky is great." Steve spoke while looking over to him just sitting on Steve's couch. "And I don't mind keeping him for a few days while you work things out with Tony."

"There is no working things out with Tony." She spoke with a frustrated voice. "Believe me, I've tried."

"You can't just give up on him, Mel."

"Why not?" Melody spoke in a sad voice, knowing he was completely right. "He did the exact same thing to me."

"You don't know that, Mel." Melody rolled her eyes, just wishing that for once he wouldn't try to make her see the other sides of things. She just wanted him to agree to her right now. "This man raised you. He loves you unconditionally and you don't know why he's doing what he's doing."

She let out the deepest sigh she had given all day, knowing deep down that he was right, but she sure as hell wasn't going to let him or anyone else know that. "We will be back home in five hours."

Steve let out a chuckle, knowing there was no way he was going to talk her out of coming back home. She was just too damn stubborn. "I'll make dinner."

"Love you." Melody tried, hoping that her love would make up for her stubbornness.

"I love you, Mel."

With that, she hung up the phone with a smile on her face. She looked around the room, making sure she had everything packed up. She wasn't totally sure that this was the right move, but she had made it up in her mind that this is what she was going to do…before it was too late.

* * *

Tony sat in his workshop, zooming in on a picture of the Mandarin, wondering just where this guy came from. "I've compiled a Mandarin database for you, sir." Jarvis reported. "Drawn from SHIELD, FBI and CIA intercepts." Tony pressed a couple of commands, not speaking to Jarvis, still quiet from his argument with Melody in the car. "Initiating virtual crime scene reconstruction."

The scene of the explosion of the Chinese Theater played before him in holograms as multiple news reports showed up in front of him. "Okay, what do we got here?" He began to speed read through "His name is an ancient Chinese mantel meaning 'advisor to the king'." He went to the next article, doing the same thing he had done to the last one. "South American insurgency tactics. Talks like a Baptist preacher." He began to scratch his head, turning away from the articles, just wishing that Melody was down here helping him. "There's lots of pageantry going on here…lots of theatre."

With the wave of the hand, he got rid of all the articles. "The heat from the blast was in excess of 3,000 degrees Celsius. Any subjects within 12.5 yards were vaporized instantly."

Tony looked to the shadows of the victims planted on the wall, remembering something he read on one of the articles. "No bomb parts found in a 3-mile radius Chinese Theater."

"No, sir." Jarvis reported.

Tony looked all around the crime scene laid out before him, hoping to find something new from this. Hoping to help Happy. "Come on, Happy." He whispered as he moved to where he was found in the explosion. "Talk to me." He had Jarvis analyze what he was looking at and reaching for, noticing it was dog tags. That's when it all hit him. "When is a bomb not a bomb?" He picked up the scan of the dog tags, making them clearer. "Any military victims?"

"Not according to public records, sir." Jarvis reported, but this was just making Tony even more confused. Nothing was really adding up.

He climbed up on one of the boxes in his workshop so he could get an overview look of what he was about to ask for. "Bring up the thermogenic signatures again, factor in 3,000 degrees Celsius."

A map of the United States was under him as he looked all around at the different spots that popped up on that map. "The oracle cloud has completed analysis. Accessing satellites and plotting the last twelve months of thermogenic occurrences now."

Tony's wheels began turning as he looked down on the map. "Take away everywhere that there's been a Mandarin attack." Jarvis did as he said, leaving only a few places left on the map. Tony scanned with his eyes, finally finding one matching the same degrees in Celsius. "That." He spoke while pointing to Rose Hill, Tennessee. "You sure that's not one of his?"

"It predates any known Mandarin attack." Jarvis told him while a few files about the incident showed up. "The incident was the use of a bomb to assist a suicide." All the other spots on the map disappeared, just focusing on that one. "But the heat signature is remarkably similar."

"That's two military guys." Tony sighed, knowing that if Melody was by his side, he would have figured this out a whole lot quicker, but he shook it away, knowing it was useless. "Ever been to Tennessee, Jarvis?"

"Creating a flight plan for Tennessee." Jarvis reported as Tony stood up from where he was sitting.

He cleared everything out of the way just as the doorbell rang, causing him to jump. "Are we still at ding-dong?" He asked while looking to the security footage. He began to bang on the boxes nearby while calming his nerves from that jump scare. "We're supposed to be on total security lockdown." He began to get off the metal boxes with a deep sigh. "Come on, I threatened a terrorist. Who is that?"

Jarvis sighed, with all the helicopters swarming the house, he had a lot to focus on. "There's only so much I can do, sir, when you've given the world's press your home address."

* * *

Maya Hansen and Zeke Stane stood at the front door of the house, Maya deciding to knock again while Zeke continued to look through the glass door to try to see if he could see anyone. Suddenly, the door opened, taking them both by surprise. They both gave each other an unsure look while walking inside as the house scanned them both at the same time.

Tony greeted them in his Iron Man suit, stopping them from going further into the house. "Right there is fine." Maya gave him a tight smile as Zeke raised his eyebrows at the Iron Man suit. "You're not the Mandarin." He picked up his helmet, looking at them back and forth, not being able to remember the last time he saw each of them. "Are you?" Maya smiled at him, the same thing running through her head about Tony. " _Are_ you?"

"You don't remember?" She inferred. She began to laugh while shaking her head. "Why am I not surprised?"

"Don't take it personally." He stated. Zeke looked him up and down, not sure how to take seeing Tony Stark again. Especially on these new circumstances of the Mandarin. "I don't remember what I had for breakfast."

"Gluten free waffles, sir." Jarvis spoke, causing them both to look up, Maya in confusion, Zeke in the smile of a memory.

"That's right." Tony spoke, remembering what he had for breakfast again.

"I forgot about Jarvis." Zeke spoke, walking further into the home, a memory rushing to his head at every point in the house.

"Okay, look," Maya spoke while Zeke was distracted from the memory of his first kiss with Melody in the near hallway. "I need to be alone with you. Someplace not here…it's urgent."

Tony gave her a wanting look while turning around as she followed him. "Normally, I would go for that sort of thing, but now I'm in a committed relationship." A suitcase dropped from the second floor, getting the attention of everyone downstairs. "It's…" More suitcases dropped down after that one causing Tony to look up. "With her."

"Tony!" Pepper called while Melody hurried toward the steps followed by Clint and then Pepper. "Is somebody there?"

Tony got out of his Iron Man suit, looking up to the stairs. "Yup. It's Maya Hansen." She turned to Tony with wide eyes and a smile, surprised he remembered her. "An old botanist pal that I used to know. Barely." The three began to hurry down the steps, Melody stopping cold in her tracks when saw Zeke Stane. Tony took this opportunity to turn to Maya with wide, frightened eyes. "Please tell me there's not a twelve year old kid waiting in the car that I've never met."

"He's thirteen." She corrected with a straight face, causing him to jump with a sound of fear escaping out of his throat. "No, I need your help."

"What the hell?" Melody screamed while moving up to him with an angry face. "Are you kidding me right now?"

He shrugged, his computer bag draped over his shoulder in his striped light blue button down shirt, red tie and tan suit vest matching his pants. "You never called." She rolled her eyes at the complete irony of _him_ saying that to _her_.

"Is this who I think it is?" Clint asked while walking over, puffing up his chest slightly, causing Melody to roll her eyes again.

"Zeke Stane." He spoke while extending his hand out to shake Clint's. Clint took his hand, but made sure to make the shake extra hard.

"Clint Barton." He spoke as Melody rolled her eyes. This is another reason why she was trying to leave right now. To avoid this situation. "Melody's boyfriend."

"Oh, god!" She yelled while turning to him. "This is exactly what I _didn't_ want to happen."

"Oh, what?!" Clint yelled right back in the same annoyed tone she had. "Now I'm the bad guy?"

"Well, you're not the good guy!" She pointed out as Zeke stood between the two awkwardly.

"Yeah," Zeke commented. "You guys are perfect for each other."

"Oh, shut up, Zeke." They both spoke at the same time before looking back to each other.

"We're going out of town." Pepper spoke.

"Yup." Melody spoke with a wide smile to Clint while grabbing his hand and pulling him toward everyone else, Zeke following them.

"Okay," Tony spoke while turning to Pepper. "We've been through this. Nope."

"Yep!" Pepper challenged right back.

"The man says no!" Tony yelled right back at her.

"Immediately and indefinitely!" Pepper yelled, not really caring about Tony's objections.

"Great idea." Zeke spoke, moving so all four of them could see him. "We'll help." Maya nodded with a smile as Zeke looked to her.

"See," Melody spoke while looking over to Tony. "Let's go."

"That is a terrible idea!" Tony spoke while pointing over to the two who were heading towards the bags.

"Please don't touch her bag!" Clint yelled right when Zeke picked up Melody's bag.

"Clint!" Melody yelled while stomping her feet.

"This is how normal people behave." Pepper emphasized to Tony.

"What?!" Clint yelled back to Melody. "I don't like him!"

"He almost had all of us out the door!" Melody yelled right back to him.

Zeke and Maya began to feel like their efforts to get them all out of there were failing miserably. "Uh," Maya spoke, catching sight of the giant stuffed rabbit by the stairs. "Is that normal?"

"YES THIS IS NORMAL!" Tony yelled out.

"Yes," Pepper sighed out while looking over to the two. "Sadly that is very normal."

"Okay." Maya said while turning around, not expecting to be yelled at.

"It's a big bunny, relax about it!"

"Calm down." Melody told him while waving her hands at them.

Tony turned to her like she was insane. "I got this for her!"

Melody opened her mouth, about to yell back at him, but Pepper beat her to it. "I'm aware of that."

"You still haven't even told me you like it! I asked you three – "

"I don't like it!" Pepper finally yelled at him.

"You don't like it?!"

Melody put her hands on her head, Clint putting his on her shoulders, expecting another anxiety attack, but it was worse. She was just boiling over with stress and rage. She just couldn't keep it in anymore. All she wanted was a simple Christmas at home, but it looked like that was now out of the question. And she couldn't help but thank Tony for that. He was the one who confronted the Mandarin. She wasn't going to be pulled into this again. More importantly, she didn't want _Clint_ to be pulled into this. "That's it!" Melody finally yelled out. She was finally voicing the one thing that had been floating in her head since she got here. Because she knew Tony honestly didn't want her there. Everyone got quiet, all eyes on her. "I'm leaving!" She turned to Clint who continued to look at her with shock at her finally bursting. " _We're_ leaving." She clarified with the point of a finger while turning back to Tony. "I love you, but I am not getting sucked into all of this again!"

She shook her head to him, not sure what else to say with his blank, confused expression. She turned around, ripped her bag from Zeke's hands and began to make her way to the door. "You're just like your mother."

Melody stopped dead in her tracks, never being more angry with Tony than she was right now, knowing exactly what he meant by calling her Emily. When she turned around, her eyes bared nothing but hate. "What did you just say to me?" She challenged, dropping her suitcase where it was and moving closer to him.

"You heard me." He challenged right back, not even close to backing down. "You're just like your mom. You're running out right when things are getting important."

The entire room was deathly quiet, knowing that was the hardest blow Tony could ever give her. "You don't know a damn thing about my mom." Melody growled through her teeth.

"No." He spoke while shaking his head. " _You_ don't know a damn thing about her. You only know the lies SHIELD has fed you since that's all you've become."

Melody shook her head, a small smile growing on her face from anger. "If I'm like my mom, then you are just like your dad." Pepper watched Tony nervously, wondering how he would react to that as Clint moved closer to Melody in hopes to stop her before she said something that she would truly regret. "All you have done since it got tough was push me away. And you know that's exactly what your father did to you!"

"Spit it out, Melody." Tony challenged with a shrug, trying to act like what she was about to say wasn't going to kill him, when he knew it was going to be the exact opposite.

She stood there for a moment when Maya called out, "Hey!"

No one listened to her. They were all waiting for what Melody had to say. "I hate you." She whispered out as if those words hurt her more than they hurt Tony. They all knew that was the first time she had ever said it, and they all grew tense, wondering how she could push the knife deeper into Tony's wound of absence. "You did a shit job of raising me. And I wish you died instead of my dad."

"Guys!" Maya called out again, her eyes glued on the television. This time, they all looked to her as Melody wiped a tear off her face and Tony blinked rapidly to keep tears from falling down his. "I hate to interrupt, but do we need to worry about that?"

They all looked to the television, their eyes getting wider and panic flooding their faces. A missile was close to the house, almost hitting the window by the living room. Right where they were. They all turned just in time to see the missile hit the house, sending them all flying back. Maya and Zeke went straight to the ground, Tony and Melody towards the TV and Pepper and Clint towards the door. It had all moved in slow motion as they fell back. Melody looked over to Tony, noticing he was calling the suit to him, but it didn't go to Tony, it went to Pepper, enveloping her in the suit right when Tony and Melody hit the wall and Clint the floor.

Tony sat there for a moment, processing what had just happened to them. A missile hit their house. The Mandarin was attacking. Melody hit the wall. Clint hit the wall. Pepper had the suit on. Pepper. Maya and Zeke were passed out. Melody was lying with her face away from Tony, on her stomach, he wasn't even sure if she was breathing. Clint was sitting up, but the ceiling was shattering.

He looked over to Melody, knowing he had to protect her. He rolled on top of her, shielding every part of her body he could manage, closing his eyes, waiting for the structure to tumble on top of him. He heard the break and crash, but opened his eyes when he realized he wasn't under it. He turned around to see Pepper open up the helmet of the suit, looking to him with a slight smirk. "I got you."

"I got you first." He told her.

"Get off of me." Melody groaned from under him.

"Like I said," Tony spoke while helping Melody up. "We can't stay here."

Pepper rolled her eyes at him as they began to hurry towards the door, but more missiles came through the house, the impact of one sending Tony back towards the window. "Tony!" Melody yelled, hurrying back to him.

"Melody!" Clint yelled once he stood up, seeing she was going back into the rubble.

She helped Tony up with their arms around each other, they ran to catch up with Pepper. Right when they were about to reunited with the loves of their lives when a crack in the floor, separated the four with a gap. Tony pulled Melody in, knowing she was about to fall in as Clint and Pepper looked up, giving them both hopeless looks. Melody looked to Clint, shaking her head, knowing she had to go into mission mode. "Get them, we're gonna find a way around."

Clint nodded, knowing the same thing Melody was thinking. He had to get into mission mode. He ran over to Maya and Zeke, finding them both woke up now, Zeke tending to Maya. Pepper looked to Tony and Melody. She wasn't trained like Clint was. She couldn't just push all emotions back like that. "Stop stopping." Tony spoke to her instantly. "Get them! Get outside! Go!"

She took a deep breath and with a nod, her helmet came back down. She hurried to Clint, helping Zeke up while Clint helped up Maya. The four ran to the door, Pepper trying to figure out how to blast the wall in front of them so they could get out. She just couldn't get it. She then threw her hand back, getting tired of the thing, sending both Pepper and Zeke flying forward, through the wall and slamming on the cement outside.

Clint smiled just a little bit, happy that Zeke wasn't protected by anything. He just landed on the hard cement right when Clint and Maya made it outside.

* * *

More missiles hit the house, taking down all the possible exits for Tony and Melody. The house began to tilt sideways, sending them to the window side of the house. Melody hit a bar with her back, causing her to let out groans of pain, but she saw Tony was going to keep fumbling. Right when he rolled past her, she stuck out her hand, grabbing his and beginning to pull him up.

She got him on his own bar, the two taking deep breaths. "Thanks, Mel." Tony spoke.

"Sir," Jarvis announced, causing them both to look up, alarmed. "Miss. Potts is clear of the structure."

Tony placed his hands together, pulling them towards his chest to take the suit off Pepper. "Jarvis!" Melody yelled while looking up. "Get me a suit!" The nearest suit began to fly up, attaching itself onto Melody while Tony's got to him, piece by piece.

They both stood side by side with their suits on as more bullets and missiles headed their way. Pieces of the structure fell on Tony's back while Melody blasted the falling piano at one of the helicopters shooting at them. "There's one."

"Jarvis," Tony spoke. "Where's my flight power?"

"I'm working on it, sir." Jarvis spoke to him. "This is a prototype." Tony stood up with the help of Melody while hitting on the arm of his suit. "Sir, the suit is not combat ready."

"You couldn't have picked a better suit?!" Melody yelled to him as they ran to the other end of the house, avoiding as many bullets as they could.

Tony then got a brilliant idea. He pulled the missile out the arm of his suit and threw it in the direction of the other helicopter, blasting it with his thrusters, right when it was close enough, causing it to go off. Tony turned to Melody, shrugging as she did the same to him, impressed with his quick thinking. "That's two."

When Melody looked up, she saw that the helicopter was falling, but it wasn't falling in the ocean like the first one had. It was falling right towards them. Tony grabbed Melody's hand, throwing her in front of him as they ran, but she didn't get much farther than him. When the helicopter exploded, they fell on the floor, falling into a hole, sending them to the floor under them. The workshop.

All of Tony's cars began to fall into the ocean as Dummy laid before them, trying to move, but finding it impossible right before falling in right after the cars. Melody let out a distressed scream as all the other suits began to explode one right after the other.

Tony held onto a bar while gripping Melody's hand. "You're not gonna let go, right?" Melody asked in a panicked tone, just wanting to make sure.

"I am not letting go of your hand." He promised.

That's when the whole house crumbled and fell into the ocean. Tony did as he said he would. He didn't let go of her hand. He let go of the bar, letting them float down, but Melody got caught by a wire. It wrapped around her neck and pulled her down quickly with Tony being dragged down with her. She became terrified, thrashing all around, but she hit the bottom of the sea, along with Tony. He got up, trying to pull her up, but the wreckage landed on top of them.

They both began to breathe heavily as Tony pushed his free hand through the rocks, trying to find a way out, but it was impossible. "Sir," Jarvis spoke suddenly, stopping them both from their emerging panic attacks. "Take a deep breath."

He did as Jarvis said, the hand to his suit breaking off to pull them both out of the debris. The hand then attached back onto the suit, the thrusters finally kicking in. "Flight power restored."

Together, both suits hurried out of the ocean and straight up into the sky just as the remaining Mandarin helicopter turned around, both of them getting away without being spotted.

* * *

Clint stood on the edge of the fallen structure of the house, taking deep breaths. Pepper was on her knees right next to him, crying all she could, Tony or Melody not making an appearance out of the sea yet.

Clint kept searching all over the surface of the water, looking for just a little sight of her. Her blonde hair maybe, her tan skin from the years living in sunny Malibu, even her black leather jacket would make him happy. But he couldn't see any bit of Melody. A few tears trickled down his cheeks as his gut fell all the way down to his feet. She could be dead. She really could be dead.

All of his sadness was suddenly filled with anger. He turned around on his heels, hurrying to the two waiting outside. "Clint!" Pepper called out, crawling towards where he was running off, not finding it in her to stand yet from her breaking heart. "Wait!"

Clint made it to Zeke, picking him up by the collar of his shirt while blood trickled out of his nose from the explosion. "Why are you here?" He growled in his face. "What are you trying to do?!"

"I want to help Melody." He growled out.

"Well you helped her into the goddamned ocean." Clint shook him even harsher this time. "Why did you come here?!"

"Clint!" Pepper yelled from behind him.

Clint held Zeke like that for a moment longer, wanting to kill him. This guy just didn't seem right from the beginning and not just because this was his girlfriend's ex. There was something off about him. Even Melody had seen it. He let go of Zeke, just for Pepper, but the next time he even breathed in a way Clint didn't like, he was going to put an arrow through his eye socket.

 _ **I hope you guys liked Melody exploding and Clint getting all jealous and then threatening Zeke at the end. Let me guys know what you think and we'll get new chapters even faster! Review!**_


	6. Human

Melody let out pained groans as her eyes opened up. Her whole body felt sore and the cut right between her eyebrows hurt like hell. She wasn't sure when she got that one. It might have been the explosion or the insanity which followed the explosion, but that just didn't matter to her right now. She began to take in her surroundings, realizing she was stuck in one of Tony's suits. That's when it all came flooding back to her. "Miss. Barnes," Jarvis spoke to her in a panicked voice. That's what took her by surprise over everything. Jarvis was never panicked. "Mr. Stark is not waking up."

Jarvis put up a live feed of Tony passed out in his suit just like she had been. Blood was all over his nose, a deep cut just like hers resting right on the bone of it. "Tony!" Melody yelled out.

"Mel," He groaned out, Melody letting out a relieved sigh at the fact that he was alive and responsive. "Give me five more minutes."

"Sir," Jarvis spoke. "That's the emergency alert triggered by the power dropping below five percent."

Melody's mouth slowly dropped as alerts went off in their suits. She let out frightened sighs, Tony growling from panic and fear as they noticed that their suits were slowly losing altitude. The lower they got, the more intense their noises got until they were screaming, realizing they were close to a collision with a truck. The truck driver swerved, causing them to both nail the street, Melody's suit bouncing off while Tony's skidded the road, landing him in the snow, Melody's finally hitting for a second time, ending her a few feet away from Tony.

They both laid there for a moment, not saying anything, letting the reality of the situation sink in for both of them. Everyone probably thought they were dead. Including Clint and Pepper. Tony pulled his helmet off, still weak just like Melody. "Snow." He mumbled.

Melody looked around, finally pulling her helmet off, feeling the cold hit her face immediately along with a snowflake. "Where are we?" Melody asked, Tony looking to the direction her voice had come from. "Upstate?"

"We are five miles out of Rose Hill, Tennessee."

Melody laid there for a moment, trying not to explode, but Tony bit his lip, knowing exactly why. "WHY?!"

"I prepared a flight plan. This is the location."

Melody sat up quickly, looking right over at Tony who was sitting up slowly, giving her an apologetic face. "Yeah. This one is on me."

Melody was practically shaking with emotions. She didn't know if it was anger, stress, worry or what, but they all came at her like a two ton truck. "This whole situation is _on_ you!" Melody yelled to him before putting her hands on her head, letting stress and worry take over. "This is thousands of miles from where we need to be." She spoke in a distressed tone. "Clint. I have to – " She let out deep breaths, knowing an anxiety attack was hitting her again. She just had to think about Clint. He was her anchor. But it was hard to do that when the fact that he probably thought she was dead was part of what was triggering the anxiety attack.

"Open the suits." Tony commanded, catching onto her heavy breathing.

"I think I may be malfunctioning, sir."

"Open it, J." Jarvis opened up, sending a loud gasp through Melody, sending her straight out of that anxiety attack. "That's brisk." Tony spoke while rubbing his hands together.

Melody stepped out of the suit, looking all around for something that would help them get back to Malibu or stop the Mandarin or something. But she quickly found they were in the woods. In the middle of nowhere. In Rose Hill, Tennessee.

"Maybe I'll just cozy back up – " Tony spoke, trying to lay back into the suit, bringing Melody's attention back to him.

"I actually think I need to sleep now, sir." Jarvis spoke, causing Melody to move closer to Tony and his suit.

"Jarvis," Tony spoke desperately. Melody simply shut her eyes, realizing their only way out was powered down. "Jarvis," Tony tried again. "Don't leave me, buddy."

Tony turned around to see Melody watching him with a hateful stare with her arms crossed. "Wow, I really hate you right now."

Tony scoffed, turning away from her to look back to their two dead suits. "We've got to get the suits out of here and someplace charging."

"Where?" Melody asked, throwing her hands in the air. "There's nowhere around for miles."

Tony looked around, beginning to breathe deeply. "We just have to…" He couldn't come up with anything. "We can…" Melody began to give him a worried stare, knowing exactly what was happening to him. He threw his face in his hands, the breaths as ragged as they were before.

Even if Melody was insanely mad at him, she couldn't take seeing him like this. She knew how bad panic attacks were and she wouldn't wish them on anybody. She moved to him, taking his shaking hands into hers, trying to calm him with words of assurance just like Clint had always done to her. "It's going to be okay. You're gonna be fine."

Tony looked up at her as if she was crazy. "I'm gonna be fine?!" His breaths were getting deeper, but he didn't care. Melody had let out all her frustrations on him and now it was his turn to let out his frustrations on her. "I'm in the Middle of Nowhere, Tennessee while I haven't seen or talked to you in months! You're in DC, kissing the ground your mother and Steve walk on while I'm just sitting here, hoping for a call from you that doesn't say that you're dead."

Melody was practically fuming from anger at his accusations. "I was in the middle of missions! I called you and when I couldn't call you, I was praying that you would call me because you know I would have picked up for you!"

"Steve and Emily weren't there!" He yelled out, shutting her up instantly as he looked to her with desperate eyes she had never seen before. "It wasn't Steve's fault he wasn't there, but Emily chose not to be there." Melody opened her mouth, about to defend her mother, but she realized what was really happening with Tony. Why they had been so distant lately. "Whatever her reasons." Melody blinked a couple of times. Out of everything, she never expected this. He was jealous and when she left, he had felt abandoned.

Tony rubbed his wrists warily, taking deep, slower breaths. His panic attack was gone, but he just couldn't stop telling Melody everything he had been feeling. "You left. You went with them when I was the one who wiped away every tear shed for your mom and dad, soothed every fever…" He shook his head, looking right into her soft – now watering – blue eyes. "You're _my_ girl." He shook his head again, his voice becoming soft and hoarse. "And you just left."

Tony looked away from her as Melody let this all sink in. She never wanted to make Tony feel this way. She thought he just knew how much he meant to her, but she realized she's never really told him how much he meant to her. She had said, "I love you" all the time, but she's never actually told him how much she loves him.

"Tony," She spoke softly. He turned to look at her, tears just falling from his eyes just like hers. She put her hands on his cheeks, looking intently to his eyes, trying to show him that she meant every word she was about to say. " _I am your_ baby girl." He shut his eyes, those words meaning the whole world to him. "No matter what," He opened his eyes again, wondering how he got this lucky to have someone as amazing as Melody. "You were my first love out of all of them." She wiped some tears off of his cheeks as a small smile came on his face. "Don't ever forget that, Tony."

He couldn't wait any longer. He pulled her in for a tight hug, a relieved smile passing over Melody's face. Tony's smile got so wide, finding it hard to believe that he had been pushing her away for so long, refusing to talk to her about this. He rubbed her back, missing how close they were, knowing he would do anything to get this back and have this for the rest of their lives. "You were the best thing to ever happen to me." He whispered into her ear.

She let out a happy laugh, but then began to cry even more, thinking back on what she told him before the explosion. "I didn't mean anything I said in Malibu about hating you."

Tony pet her hair, beginning to hush her, letting her just enjoy the comfort of being in Tony's arms again. "I know. I didn't mean it either."

They sat there like that for long, amazing moments, knowing from now on, no matter what happened, they would always know how much the other loved each other.

* * *

The two pulled their suits behind them as they trudged through the snow. There wasn't much talking between the two. They had pushed that away quick. They're only focus now was on getting to the Mandarin. They had no choice but to stop this guy. He made this personal and he had pulled them into this publically. So, now, this had to be finished.

When the two finally began to reach civilization, Melody's thighs felt like ice and every time Tony breathed, he felt his lungs getting colder. They stopped at a gas station. The inside was closed, but that's not what they were going for. The payphone was their real gold. So was the poncho on the wooden Indian that Tony took quickly.

Tony hurried inside first since he had no jacket and he was probably the coldest one out of the two. Melody joined him in the booth, leaving the two suits outside as they huddled up in the booth, trying to use as much of what was left of their warmth. Tony raided his pockets, taking out what change was in there, Melody completing a dollar with a quarter. He gave her a thankful look before using the money and pulling the phone up to his ear.

Melody moved as close to him as possible, wanting to say a few words to Clint as well. "Stark Secure Server: now transferring to all known receivers."

Melody let out a relieved breath that it had actually worked, trying to move even closer to Tony. "Pepper, it's me." He spoke simply. "I've got a lot of apologizes to make and not enough time. So, first off, I'm so sorry I put you in harm's way." Melody shut her eyes, leaning her head on Tony's shoulder, causing him to give her a slight smile while wrapping his arm around her body. "That was selfish and stupid and that won't happen again." He looked to Melody, holding her close. He wasn't sure if he would be able to stay sane through all this if it wasn't for her by his side. "Also, it's Christmas time. The rabbit's too big." Melody chuckled slightly, feeling a few tears fall down her cheeks, knowing how much she wanted to be home, but…there was no longer a home to go to. "Done. Sorry. And I'm sorry in advance…because Mel and I can't come home yet." Melody sighed, knowing that the Mandarin destroyed the one place that had remained her home for the longest time. "We need to find this guy. You gotta stay safe. That's all I know." Tony took a deep sigh, not knowing what else to tell her. "I just stole a poncho from a wooden Indian."

Melody laughed slightly as he handed her the phone, Melody letting out a tiny gasps from the tears she was shedding. "Hi, baby." Tony gave her a sad smile, knowing how hard this had to be for her. "We have to go after this guy. He threatened our safety, but most importantly, yours." Melody shut her eyes, just wishing she was with Clint again. "And I'm not gonna tell you where we are. You need to be there for Pepper, and I know that the second you find out where I am, you're gonna come running…" Melody took a deep breath. This had to be the hardest thing she had to tell him. That she didn't want him when she knew it was the exact opposite. "I can't have you doing that." She took a deep breath, while shutting her eyes tight, knowing what she was about to say would be the realest thing she would ever say. "I love you." She moved the phone closer to her, about to express all her worries about leaving. "Watch Zeke." She told him intensely. "He's…changed. He's not who he was before. And I don't trust him. Be careful. I love you."

With a deep sigh, she hung up the phone. She just wished there was a way she knew he got it or a way she could hear his voice. She looked over to Tony and he knew what was wrong with her instantly. He pulled her in for a tight hug, every part of her body being covered. She smiled, realizing how much she missed his comfort. But then she had to pull her head out of the hug. That poncho really smelled.

* * *

Tony bashed the door to the shed open with the axe outside, letting his suit fall in immediately. Melody pushed her way in while rubbing her hands together for warmth. It wasn't much, but it was _some_ shelter from the cold. She grew up in Malibu for god's sake!

Tony took off his poncho, throwing it outside while scanning the room. It had to be a workshop of some kind, and this would be the perfect place to let the suits charge up. They both dragged their suits inside, placing them on opposite ends of the couch, giving them enough room for both of them to sit in the middle. Right when they got their suits resting on the couch, they both plopped down, Tony's arm immediately going around Melody's shoulders.

They sat like that for a while, just appreciating the rest until a thought came into Tony's mind. "I gotta get that stuff out of me." He spoke while getting up.

Melody sat there for a moment, not really knowing what he was talking about, and she really wanted to stay on the couch. With a groan, she got up, moving to where he was picking at the skin on his arm. She then remembered watching the suit come onto him when they first got to the house. "You injected them into your skin, didn't you?"

"Yeah." Tony sighed out.

"You know how dangerous that is, right?"

He gave her an annoyed look while she simply put her hands up in defense. "Just saying."

Suddenly, the door got kicked, causing them both to look up. "Freeze!" A little boy with light brown hair stood in the doorway. They both sat there for a moment, not knowing what to do, a potato gun staring them down. "Don't move."

Tony and Melody exchanged a look, practically reading each other's minds on what to do. They both turned to him, slowly raising their hands in defense. "You got me." Tony told him with a shrug.

Melody studied his weapon, realizing just how smart he was. It looked good. "Nice potato gun."

"Barrel's a little long." Tony commented as Melody nodded in agreement, but it still looked really good for a kid who was probably ten. "Between that and the wide gauge, it's going to diminish the FPS."

Just to show him up, Harley shot up at one of the beakers sitting up top, causing them both to jump. They put their hands down, looking to the boy, Tony just giving him a shrug. "Now you're out of ammo."

The boy's eyes went down to Tony's chest, Melody smiling, knowing that's what he was really the most interested in. "What's that in your chest?"

"An electromagnet." Melody spoke with a shrug, looking over to a box by the workstation they were sitting at. "You should know. You have a whole box of them right here." She flicked the box before grabbing them, looking to the boy with a smile.

"What does it power?"

Melody squinted her eyes at the boy, knowing exactly what he was thinking. Tony and Melody looked to each other again, giving each other a smile, Tony thinking the exact same thing she was. They both parted, Tony shinning the light on what was behind them. The two Iron Man suits.

The boy immediately dropped his gun, his mouth dropped with an excited smile brightening up his face. "Oh my god!" He moved closer, looking back and forth from Tony to Melody. "Is that Iron Man?"

"Technically, I am." Melody rolled her eyes at his response.

"Technically," He spoke, moving past them, putting a newspaper to Tony's chest. "Iron Man and Dark Violet are dead."

Tony looked at the newspaper, the headline story being: MANDARIN ATTACK: STARK AND BARNES PRESUMED DEAD. Melody rolled her eyes at the two pictures of the two. "They just had to use the picture of my bad side."

Tony rolled his eyes at her, giving her another annoyed look as she just shrugged, knowing it was true. "Valid point." Tony told the boy as he began to inspect both suits.

"What happened to them?" He asked, sitting right in between the two on the couch, more interested in the red and gold one since it was the closest to the original Iron Man.

"Life." Melody spoke while leaning on a nearby table, wishing "life" would just stop happening to her for a moment.

"I built him." Tony spoke to both the boy and Melody, knowing she needed some reassurance too. "I'll take care of him. I'll fix him."

"Like a mechanic." Melody smiled at his response while he played with the head of the suit. Damn, she was really missing Lila and Cooper. "If I was building Iron Man," he continued in an excited voice, making Melody's smile become even wider. "And War Machine."

"It's Iron Patriot now." Tony corrected.

His eyes got even wider. Melody continued her smile. Maybe it wasn't that she was missing Lila and Cooper. "That's way cooler." It was that she wanted her own child.

"No it's not."

Melody rolled her eyes again at Tony's response. She turned back to the boy, giving him a warm smile. "What would you do?"

He looked over to Melody's suit, running his hands along it. "I would have added in the retro – "

"Retroreflective panels?" Melody finished for him.

"And make him stealth mode." Tony and Melody nodded while looking at each other with an impressed smile. "Cool, right?"

"That's actually a good idea." Tony spoke with a nod, knowing even more that this was a great place to let their suit charge. "Maybe I'll build one."

He went back to Tony's suit, going to the hand and ended up breaking the finger off. "Not a good idea!" Tony yelled to him. "What are you doing?" He had no idea how to raise a boy. Why did they never listen? "You're going to break his finger?" Melody always listened when she was his age. "He's in pain; he's injured. Leave him alone."

"Sorry." He spoke with his eyes downcast. Melody looked up at him with a concerned face. He was just so cute and he felt so bad. And whoa, Melody just realized she had been hit with massive baby fever in the amount of a minute and a half.

"Are you?" Tony asked. Melody gave him a pleading face, not wanting to be mean to this kid at all. "Don't worry about it." Tony spoke while shaking his head at him, forgetting how careless kids could be since Melody was a kid. "I'll fix it."

"So," Melody spoke, playing with one of the electromagnets she had picked up. "Who's home?"

"Well," He was still playing with the finger, not looking up at the two. "My mom already left for the diner and my dad went to 7-11 to get scratchers." Melody crossed her arms, picking up on the sadness in his voice. "I guess he won because that was six years ago."

They let an awkward silence pass through them, realizing they all had something in common. A missing dad. "Which happens." Tony spoke with a shrug, causing Melody to look to him with wide eyes. "Dad's leave. No need to be a pussy about it."

"Tony!" Melody scolded.

"Here's what I need," He spoke, totally ignoring Melody's comment. "A laptop, a digital watch, a cell phone, the pneumatic actuator from your bazooka over there, a map of the town, a big spring, a tuna fish sandwich for me and a turkey one for her. She can't stomach tuna."

Melody smiled slightly, glad that he still remembered that about her. "What's in it for me?" He spoke with a shrug.

Melody continued to study him, noticing the fading black ring around his eye. "Salvation." She spoke as she moved close to him, sitting on the stool across from the couch. "What's his name?"

"Who?" He asked with his eyebrows knitting together.

"The kid who bullies you at school." Tony spoke, moving right behind Melody, leaning on the desk behind him. "What's his name?"

He looked down, obviously feeling ashamed of himself, just breaking Melody's heart. "How did you know that?"

"I got just the thing." Melody spoke, standing up and going to the suit, pressing the button to open it up. She smiled at the fact that this had been in every Iron Man suit since they first created it together. He still remembered even when they were fighting.

Melody walked over to him, putting it in his face. "This is a piñata for a cricket." Tony spoke.

He gave them both a confused look, ending his look at Melody who shook her head with a slight smile. "He's just kidding. It's a very powerful weapon." She began to demonstrate for him. "Point it away from your face, press the button on top and it discourages bullying."

"Not lethal." Tony spoke with a shrug. "Just to cover one's ass."

He reached out for it, but Melody pulled it away, giving him a serious look. "Deal?" She began to move it around clockwise, giving him a slight smile as he continued to reach for it. "Deal?" She dragged the word out, making him smile.

"Deal." He told her confidently. She gave him an even bigger smile as she handed it to him and he began to study it curiously.

Tony sighed, taking a place on the couch right next to the boy, Tony and Melody really just wanting a chance to rest for a moment. "What's your name?"

"Harley." He spoke, still distracted by what Melody had just gave him. She began to think. She really did like that name. "And you're…"

"The Mechanics." Tony told him, making direct eye contact with Melody, causing her to smile. "Tony and Mel." Harley finally looked up at the two with a bit of a smile. He was actually going to work with Iron Man and Dark Violet. "You know what keeps running through my head?" He turned his head at what he had just said. "Where's my sandwich?"

Melody immediately tossed the electromagnet at Tony at how rude he was being. He threw his hands in the air, causing an eye roll from Melody, but this time, she knew she would always love him and he would always love her. "What?! We just trudged through the snow for a few hours! I'm hungry!"

 _ **I hope you guys liked Tony and Melody FINALLY making up in this chapter. The next chapter will be what's going on with Clint and Pepper so don't think I'm going to leave them out! Hope you guys enjoyed and please remember to review! See you soon, friends!**_


	7. Meanwhile

_**Sorry I'm getting this chapter to you guys super late. I've been so busy with this first week of college and rush week (I pledged Phi Mu!) I've just been so busy. Hope you guys enjoy this chapter! I've been working on my fight scenes so I hope the one at the end of this chapter is good for you guys! Enjoy and please review!**_

Clint and Pepper both walked back into the wreckage. They didn't know what they expected to find, but it was the only thing they could do at this moment. The fire department and police swarmed the place with the media taking over the gate area. Right when they walked back into the rubble, Clint saw their suitcases burned slightly. That's when he remembered what he had in there. "No, no." He whispered as he hurried over to them, opening his up. He tossed the clothes to the side, not caring about those a bit. All he cared about was the ring.

At the bottom of the suitcase, Clint found the little velvet box, opening it up to see that the ring he had personally designed was still intact. He made it to look just like the arc reactor her and Tony had worked so hard on. It was just a symbol for everything that happened to them. The way everything had played out. They were brought together, torn away to be brought together and be torn away again. And through everything, their love remained steady. Just like the arc reactor had. Through its changes, its purpose was still as steady as it was when it was first thought of. Maybe even stronger.

"Clint!" Pepper screamed. He immediately stood up, tucking the box in his pants pocket to run over to her.

"What is it?!" He asked urgently, reaching to her, finding one of the Iron Man masks up to her face.

She turned to look at him with a smile as he continued to stare at her, his face a mix of worry, fear and anxiousness. She handed him the mask. Clint didn't know what she was talking about, but something was telling him that it was a good thing. He put the mask up to his face. A blue light came out, beginning to scan him, but he let it happen, too anxious about what was going to happen. "Stark Secure Server: retinal scan verified. Barton, Clint."

Clint continued to stand there, not totally sure what this meant. "Hi, baby." Melody's teary voice came through. Clint let out a relived sigh as his eyes shut at how beautiful her voice was at that moment. He would never take her voice for granted ever again. "We have to go after this guy." He was waiting for something to tell him where to get her. "He threatened our safety, but most importantly, yours." He let out a few sighs, just appreciating the sound of her voice. "And I'm not gonna tell you where we are."

"No, no, no." He whispered, pulling the mask closer to him, worried about what was happening to her right now. Where she was. If she was warm. If she was missing him.

"You need to be there for Pepper and I know that the second you find out where I am, you're gonna come running."

"That's exactly what I would have done if you wouldn't have put this call on the Secure Stark Server." He mumbled to himself.

"I can't have you doing that." He could hear the deep sigh, causing him to shut his eyes, knowing that if she hadn't started crying yet, she was about to. "I love you."

"I love you." He whispered into the mask while shutting his eyes, just wishing she could hear his voice, assuring her.

It then got silent, but he could still hear her breathing over the phone. That's how he knew she still wasn't done. "Watch Zeke." She told him in almost a whisper. Clint's eyes went down, listening to her advice as intently as he could. "He's…changed. He's not who he was before. He's changed. And I don't trust him." Clint could feel the steam wanting to just blow out of his ears. He just knew there was something off with this guy. And now that it was confirmed that Melody was thinking the same thing, he was going to watch him with his amazing hawk eyes. "Be careful. I love you."

With a sigh, the line went dead and Clint stood there for a moment, with the mask still to his face, trying to think of his next move. He had to go with Maya and Zeke. He had to find out what was going on with them, but he did not trust them one bit. He only didn't trust Maya because she was with Zeke and he wouldn't trust that man with anything.

He had to do what Melody told him to. It was just like a mission. He had to treat this like Melody was his supervisor, sending him on his own project. And that project was to keep Pepper safe. He had to let Emily and Steve know that she was alright. But was she really alright? He had no idea. How was he supposed to tell her mother and great-uncle that he had no idea where she was or if she was alright? All he got was a message telling him to watch out for Zeke and that she loved him. He sighed as he took the mask off, knowing that no matter how hard this was going to be, he was going to do what Melody told him to do. Because he knew that if he did that, he would be closer to being with her again.

* * *

Clint drove as Zeke sat in the front with Maya and Pepper in the back. He wanted to keep the most watchful eye on Zeke that he could, meaning that he had to be with him all the time. That was the only downside. Clint kept his eyes on the road which was now turning dark, not totally knowing where they were going while Pepper moved forward so she could see both Zeke and Maya's faces. "Why were you at the house tonight?"

Clint looked over to Zeke quickly before looking back to the road, his grip on the steering wheel getting stronger just by looking at him. "What was so important that the two of you had to speak to Tony?" Clint practically growled out without making eye contact with either of them.

They both sat there for a moment, an intense silence passing over the four of them. Clint, only getting angrier with even more silence. "We think our boss is working for the Mandarin." Maya spoke suddenly. Clint's eyes grew wide as he turned back to look at her. Aldrich Killian was thir boss. Clint and Pepper shared a worried look before he turned back to the road, this time his grip on the steering wheel was out of fear.

"So," Zeke spoke in an annoying tone, causing Clint to roll his eyes. "If you still want to talk about it, I suggest we get somewhere safe."

"But Tony said you were a botanist." Pepper spoke in a confused tone while looking over to Maya.

"But why would a botanist be with some guy who's into advancing DNA." Clint spoke the last part grandly, making Zeke roll his eyes.

"Clint," Pepper spoke without even looking at him, her eyes still focused on Maya. "Shut up."

"It figures Tony said that." Maya spoke with a shrug. "What I actually am is a biological DNA coder running a team of forty out of a privately funded think tank, but sure, you can call me a botanist."

Clint shrugged, impressed with her qualifications, knowing she didn't need anymore questioning. All she needed was that. "Fair enough."

* * *

"What happened?" Maya repeated as Clint and Pepper sat down on the bed opposite from her. They had no idea where to go after this. So, they went to the only place they could talk very privately. A hotel. Clint was going to do what Melody asked him to. Take care of Pepper and keep a close eye on Zeke. A hotel was one place he could do both at the same time. "Fun fact," Clint looked back to Maya, but was watching Zeke sitting next to her out of the corner of his eye. "Before he built rockets for the Nazis, the idealistic Werner von Braun, dreamed of space travel." Clint looked to her with a confused, wondering why this information was relevant. "He stargazed." She chuckled out. "Do you know what he said when the first B2 hit London?" She looked off, her face downcast and pained. "The rocket performed perfectly, it just landed on the wrong planet."

"Yeah," Clint spoke with a nod. "I don't see how any of that is going to help me find my girlfriend or her father figure."

"What she's saying," Zeke spoke in an annoyed tone. "You uneducated swine," Clint looked to him, having to clench his fists to keep from attacking him while giving him an angry smile. "We all begin wide eyed with just pure science."

"But then the egos step in like one right now." Maya continued with an annoyed face at Zeke for his outburst. "The obsession, and when you look up, you're a long way from shore."

"You can't be too hard on yourself, Maya." Pepper told her as Clint and Zeke continued their stare down. "I mean, you gave your research to a think tank."

"Yeah," She spoke, moving closer to Clint and Pepper. "But Killian built that think tank on military contracts." Clint and Zeke both looked away from each other to look back to her, both feeling equally sorry that everything she had been working for had turned to terrorism.

"That's exactly what we used to do." Pepper spoke with a shrug at the remembrance of the big battle between Tony and Obadiah when Melody and Clint both almost died. "And it got a lot of people hurt." Clint looked down at that, remembering everything about that night and his time in the hospital with Melody in the bed next to him. "So don't judge yourself."

She looked to the two with hope on her face and a slight smile. "Thank you, Pepper. I really appreciate that."

Clint just kept getting sad. He was brought through all these memories of Melody and he knew he just couldn't sit in here anymore. He stood up, getting the attention of everyone around. You could tell just by the look on his face that he was completely out of it and no one blamed him. "I'm gonna go get some ice. I'll be right back." He got up and hurried out the door and down the hall as Pepper gave him a worried stare.

After a moment of mourning silence between the three, there was a knock on the door, Pepper looked to it curiously. "He must have forgot his key." Pepper spoke as she stood up to get the door.

Maya and Zeke both looked to the front door, Maya with concern and regret, but Zeke with impatience. When Pepper opened the door, she immediately found Killian. She turned around quickly, looking to the two on the bed. "Maya, Zeke, run!"

That's when Aldrich came up, grabbing her by the neck and slamming her into the wall nearby. He gave her a smile as she looked to him with fear, not being able to move out of his grasp. "Hi, Pepper."

She let out a hateful groan, watching as Zeke got up and moved up to his boss. "I'll take care of Barton." Pepper let out another angry groan, just wanting to get out of grasp so she could actually do something.

Maya carefully walked over to the two, feeling awful about this happening to her. "So, you want to tell me why you were at Stark's mansion tonight?"

"I'm trying to fix this thing!" She yelled at him. "I didn't know you and the master were gonna blow the place up or that you were having Zeke spy on me!"

"Oh," He spoke in a sarcastic tone as Pepper kept squirming, trying to fight him off as best as he could. "You were trying to save Stark after he threatened us?"

"I told you, Killian." She spoke in an inpatient tone. "We can use him!"

That's when Pepper finally got one hand free, trying to claw his neck as much as she could, but he continued to stand there. It wasn't affecting him at all. "Pepper," He spoke calmly as if she was a child trying to interrupt her parents talking.

"If we want to launch product next year," Maya spoke, bringing him back into the conversation. "I need Stark and I need Barnes! They both lacked a decent incentive and when Zeke gets Barton, we'll have one for both of them!" Killian looked to Maya and then back to Pepper with a thinking face. They could do a lot with their two new incentive for their wanted superheroes.

* * *

Clint moved down the hall to go get the ice needed for their room, really just wanting to get away from everyone. He hated Zeke. He loved Pepper, but he couldn't stand to look at this obvious sadness in her eyes. It made their situation that more real. He should probably call Emily. She still didn't know that he had gotten the voice mail from her and Tony, finding out they were alive, but she was probably going to be pissed when she found out that he wasn't going to go looking for her. Not now at least.

He pulled out his phone, ready to dial the number when he heard a crash down the hall. He looked to it, not sure if it came from their room, but he wasn't going to take any chances. He pulled out his gun from the back of his pants, going into full mission mode.

He heard footsteps right from the corner he had to round to get into their hall and once he saw a gun, he grabbed the barrel, causing a shot to go off, but there was a silencer on so no one would be able to hear it. He slammed the man with the gun into the wall before slamming his arm into the wall, knocking the gun out of his hands. "They said you were good at a fight." The voice growled, causing Clint to get even angrier. It was Zeke.

"They said you were a dick." Clint spoke before letting him go to punch him in the face. He got a good cut into his cheekbone, but just as Clint saw the cut, his face began to glow orange, healing the cut instantly.

Clint just let out an annoyed sigh. "You've got to be kidding me."

Zeke returned with a punch in his face, right where Clint had hit him before. Zeke tried to come again with another punch, but Clint was quick this time, grabbing him by the arm and bringing his other hand down, feeling the arm fracture under all the pressure. He then picked his leg up, sending him into the wall with one kick.

Clint ran after that, trying to get to Pepper, but Zeke was ready for that. He got up off the ground, tackling him in the middle of the hallway. Clint turned around with Zeke on top of him, sending a punch into Clint's face instantly. Clint looked to see Zeke's broken arm as good as new, sending him into a confused frenzy, but right now, he had to keep his concentration on the fight.

Clint punched him in the side of the head, sending Zeke over to the other side of him. They were both laying on the floor, side by side, but Zeke kept trying. He tried to punch Clint, but he just caught his arm, raising his foot up to kick him in the chest, but Zeke blocked that. With the momentum he had of Zeke holding his leg, Clint rolled on top of him, finally punching him as hard as he could, one right after the other.

"All of this for puppy love you can't get over?" Clint asked as he continued wailing away on his face.

Zeke grabbed one of his fists, causing Clint's eyes to go wide and panicked. Zeke pulled his head back before sending it forward, giving Clint the biggest head-butt he had ever experienced. Clint fell back, holding his head on the floor as Zeke stood up. "All this for a girl you let get sucked into the ocean?"

That was enough for Clint to go crazy. He stood up quickly, grabbing Zeke by the head before slamming it into the wall. Zeke blocked every punch Clint was trying to give him before kicking him in the chest, sending him into another wall. This time, Clint was prepared for his next move, picking up on Zeke's fighting style. Zeke jumped up with his fist going right for Clint's face, but he moved out of the way right before it hit him, hitting the dry wall instead.

Clint looked to Zeke who stood there, catching his breath for a moment. "Well done," Clint spoke with a shrug. "I've got to say. You planned this whole thing, didn't you? All up to Melody and Tony getting lost at sea."

"It was never my plan for Melody to fall in." Zeke spoke as the two circled each other. "But hey," Zeke pulled out a taser, with one flick, the whole thing growing out to a long stick bursting with electricity. "Shit happens!"

He slammed the stick into the wall, Clint dodging it again. He was becoming weak and tired, and he knew he wasn't going to be able to survive a fight with him if he kept regenerating. Zeke jabbed the stick into his side, sending Clint into a shaking fit before he removed it. Clint fell to his knees, still shaking from the electric current he could feel, still frying him. Zeke did it again, Clint letting out a scream this time. When he took it away, Clint fell to the floor. That's when Zeke decided it was time for the finale.

He picked Clint up, throwing him over his shoulder as Clint continued to groan, still shaking, and wishing he could have done more to take him on. Zeke stopped when he got to the window, looking down at the stories below them. This was going to hurt if he wasn't like him. He threw him out the window, Clint luckily landing on a bush instead of the hard road that would have definitely killed him.

Clint coughed, already feeling immediate injuries. His arm was broken, he had a definite concussion and his ankle was possible twisted. With all the hits he took, he had to have internal bleeding. That was a given. "You see," Zeke spoke, moving closer to Clint. He had survived the fall with no amount of injury and even if he had even a scrap, it would have healed. "You just can't bring a pure human to a modified DNA fight."

"Fuck you." Clint muttered while holding his hurting insides.

"And you're the one who is supposed to be Melody's protector?" He began to laugh wildly as Clint rolled over, coughing blood onto the street. "Don't you think she would be more protected by someone who can actually defeat a human being?" Clint looked up at him with the blood drenching his lips, not knowing what to do to stop him. "Someone who can regenerate?" He gave him a smile while getting on his knees to make direct eye contact with him. "Someone with Extremis pumping through their blood system?"

Clint shook his head at him. "If this is your plan…" He wheezed out. "To have her forever, it's not going to work because she doesn't love you anymore and she can die."

Zeke laughed again, grabbing the side of Clint's face with a twisted smile. "Oh, Clint, I'm already one step ahead of you." Clint gave him a fearful face, knowing he was about to put his fears into a reality. "Melody is getting Extremis put into her as we speak." Clint shut his eyes tightly. He should have listened to her from the beginning. He should have gotten them both out of there as fast as he could. He just kept picturing her going through pain and suffering and it was enough to break him. "So, she may love you, but you're definitely not going to live forever."

With that, Zeke yanked Clint up, forcing him into a van they had where he saw Pepper tied up. He had failed at both jobs. The one SHIELD had given to protect her and the one Melody had given him to protect Pepper. That's the one thing that hurt the most out of all of it, he was letting everyone down.

* * *

Emily paced around Steve's apartment, not sure what to do. She should have gone to Malibu with Melody like she wanted her to. Melody would have been safe, but she knew there was no way she could have guaranteed that even if she was there. Steve simply sat on the couch, staring at his hands, taking in deep breaths. In and out. He wished he would have encouraged her to get on a plane and get her back to DC as fast as possible, but there was nothing he could do about that now. She was gone. Natasha looked to the two, not sure what to do at all, hoping one of them would come up with something. "Do you think she's dead?" Natasha finally asked in a soft voice, voicing all of their thoughts.

"No." Emily spoke instantly as they both looked up at her, wondering if she was just saying that because she didn't want it to be true or if she really knew. "I would know." She nodded, more to herself than to anyone else. "I would _feel_ it."

"What are we going to do?" Steve asked in a helpless voice.

" _We_ ," Emily spoke, finally making a decision on what needed to happen. "Are not going to do anything." She looked back and forth at the two, knowing what needed to happen. " _I_ am going to find my daughter and bring her back home safely."

"But," Natasha spoke in a panicked voice. She just had to do something about this. "Emily – "

"You two need to stay here with SHIELD in case another Mandarin attack happens." Natasha and Steve looked to each other with a deep sigh. "You are the best agents to stay back, keep a lid on where I am to Fury and be good little soldiers for him."

Steve looked back to Emily with a worried face. They already lost track of Melody, they couldn't lose track of Emily too. "What if you get hurt?"

Emily looked to her mother's first love, knowing he was always going to be protective over her just because of who she is. She shook her head, looking back and forth between the two. "I'm a mother." She spoke with a shrug. "I will go to the ends of the earth to protect my daughter and nothing is going to change that. I don't care how old she gets, she's always going to need protection by her mother." She looked at Steve mainly, knowing that he was the most worried about her. " _I_ need to do this. I have to find my daughter. I have to be the one to bring her home."

Steve finally looked up at her, giving her a slight smile, knowing exactly where she was coming from. Melody had saved her daughter once when he was back in the ice. He had all the faith in the world that she could do it again, but he couldn't let anything happen to either of them. They were the only family he had left.

 _ **Whoa! What do you think about that one? The next chapter is going to be all Tony and Melody, but I just wanted to use this chapter to focus on the other characters and how they're doing after the attack on the Stark house. Most of them aren't doing good. And in the next chapter you will see the interesting affects Extremis is going to be having on Melody! It is most definitely not like the others! Hope you enjoyed! Review!**_


	8. Family Bonding Time

_**Sorry, I've been having some technical difficulties so I'm getting this to y'all super late. I had to end up rewriting this chapter. I hope you like this one and more about Emily and what she's working on to help her daughter in the next chapter!**_

Melody looked to the street behind them as they walked forward, on their way to the blast zone. If there was one thing she learned from SHIELD in the past nine months, it was that if you were doing something illegal or secretive, someone was always watching. It didn't matter if you couldn't see them, but someone was always there. Nick Fury taught her that one. "The sandwich was fair," Tony spoke to Harley. "The spring was a little rusty, the rest of the materials…I'll make do." She gave one look back as they were getting ready to round the corner, making Tony roll his eyes. "Please stop that." He spoke as quickly as he could manage. "You're making me nervous."

"Someone has to check our back." Melody taunted as she made the full turn into the dead end that would lead all the way to the blast zone. She immediately stopped once she saw all the lit candles, picture, flowers and various other items left for morning. It hit her pretty hard once she saw it. Innocent people had died here and it was just so the Mandarin could prove a point.

"Oh, and by the way, when you said your sister had a watch." Melody finally turned around to look back at the two boys, noticing Tony picking up his sleeve. "I was hoping for something a little more adult than that."

Harley began laughing as Melody gave Tony a tight smile while turning around when he got right next to her as he put his arm around her shoulders. "She's six!" He exclaimed as they walked forward together, making a line. "Anyway, it's limited edition." Harley looked up at the two superheroes with an excited gaze. "When can we talk about New York?"

Melody shook her head, not expecting that question to come up so randomly, but he was a kid. A very curious kid at that. "Maybe never." Tony answered for him. "Relax about it."

"What about the Avengers?" He asked excitedly as he moved closer to Melody, hoping to coax her into telling him. "Can we talk about them?"

She sighed while putting her hand on his mop of brown hair. "Maybe later."

"Hey, kid," Tony spoke, pushing his hand out in front of him, moving him away from Melody as she gave him a sorry smile. "Give us some space."

Melody looked around, feeling sadder close up. Tony did the same, but it was more of an analyzation. "What's the official story here?" Melody asked while moving to sit down next to Harley, right on the edge of the rubble. She turned to look to him with a serious face, wanting to let him know what she was listening to him, remembering what it was like to be a smart kid. Mostly, she remembered the not listening since she was "just a kid". "What happened?"

Harley looked to Melody, but then back to the explosion, feeling the same sadness the whole town felt about the tragedy. "I guess this guy named Chad Davis used to live roundabouts. He won a bunch of medals in the Army. Then one day, folks said he went crazy and made, you know…a bomb." He whispered the word as if it was bad and they couldn't blame him. "Then he blew himself up right here."

Tony continued standing behind the two, looking around at the rubble. "Six people died, right?" Tony asked, beginning to walk around it, causing Melody to give him a confused face.

"Yeah." Harley spoke.

"Including Chad Davis?" Harley nodded again and that's when Melody started looking where Tony was looking, noticing that there were only five shadows on the wall. "Yeah, it doesn't make sense."

Harley looked to him with a confused face as he sat down, making Harley in the middle. "Think about it." Melody spoke as she nudged him, but Harley couldn't get over the fact that the superhero he had the biggest crush on had just touched him and was talking to him. "Six dead, but only five shadows."

Harley looked back to the shadows, a shrug resting on his shoulders. "People say these shadows are like the mark of souls going to Heaven except the bomb guy. He went to Hell on the account of he didn't get a shadow." He finally let his shrug happen before looking back to the rubble. "That's why there's only five."

"You buy that?" Tony asked while chewing on his thumb, something he had picked up from his father when he was thinking and kind of became a habit for the whole family.

"That's what everybody says." Harley spoke with another shrug, not really knowing what to think. The three of them let that sit for a moment, but Harley really only had one question on his mind. "You know what this crater reminds me of?" He spoke with a smile growing on his face.

"No idea." Tony spoke as soon as he was done with his sentence. "And I don't care."

"That big wormhole." Harley spoke while throwing his hands up, just thinking about what it looked like on TV. "In New York." He looked to them, hoping they would be as excited as he was, but Melody was shifting around, uncomfortable with the topic being brought up while Tony put his hands on his forehead. "Does it remind you guys?"

"That's manipulative." Tony spoke while looking to him. "I don't want to talk about it."

"Are they coming back?" Harley asked seriously while looking over to Melody. She opened her mouth, but she quickly realized she had no idea if they were coming back or not. "The aliens?"

"Maybe." She spoke instantly, not wanting to hear that word ever again. "Can you stop?"

Harley continued to sit there, not knowing what to say to either of them. "Remember when I told you that I have an anxiety issue?" Tony asked as he looked over to Harley.

"Does this subject make you edgy?"

"Yeah." Melody spoke while pulling her knees to her chest. "A little bit." That's when Tony realized how bad she was affected by just a few words too. "Can I just catch my breath for a second?"

"Are there bad guys in Rose Hill?" Harley asked while looking over to Melody. She shook her head and put her finger out, telling him to wait a moment so he looked over to Tony. "Do you need a plastic bag to breathe into?"

Tony was breathing out of his teeth while Melody put her head between her knees, not sure what else to do to catch her breath. "Do either of you have medication?" He asked while looking back and forth between them.

"No." Tony spoke.

"Do you need to be on it?" Harley asked, continuing to look back and forth, not sure which one was going to answer next.

"Probably." Melody gasped out.

"Do you have PTSD?"

"I don't think so." Tony spoke while shaking his head, but he knew it was probably the exact opposite.

He looked back to Melody, putting his hand on her shoulder, causing her to look back up. "Are you going completely mental?" Her breath just got quicker as she looked around. That's when she began to realize how totally insane all of this is. "I can stop. Do you want me to stop?" She just continued to sit there, Tony finally realizing the Melody also had an anxiety issue because of New York. "Do you want me – "

"Remember when I said to stop doing that?!" Melody screamed while turning to look right at him. "I swear to God, you're gonna freak me out." She continued to look at Harley as he just slightly let his tongue slip out of his mouth. That's when she remembered she was putting her trust into a ten year old.

She let out a whine as she stood up – Tony and Harley standing up along with her – looking back and forth at the two, not knowing what to say or do. That's when she took off in the other direction. Almost as if it was her mother coming back into her life all over again.

She had to get home. She had to get to Clint. All of this was just ridiculous. She couldn't just stand idly by anymore. "You did it!" Tony yelled as he pushed Harley back before running after Melody. "You happy?"

"What did I say?!" Harley yelled as he ran after the two.

Tony was picking up on her speed, catching up to her just as she was about to round the corner into the street. He grabbed her by the waist, pulling her back into the alley some before she fell on her knees, Tony falling along with her. Melody just sat there on her knees, breathing in heavily as Tony moved to face her, putting his hands on her shoulders. "Melody," He spoke in the best assuring voice he could manage. "You're all right, okay? I'm not gonna let anything happen to you."

"I don't know that." Melody cried out while looking to him with tears spilling out of her eyes. Tony had time to yell at her, get everything off of his chest, but now it was Melody's turn and she wasn't going to let a missile stop her this time. "You left me once. How do I know you're not gonna leave me again?" She shook her head at him. "Everyone has left me." Tears were streaming down her face as she talked because this wasn't just what happened with her and Tony catching up with her, this was everything. Years of hurt. "Mom, Dad, Clint." She looked up at him, practically shaking. "You're the one person I thought was never going to leave me." She shook her head and turned away, finding herself not able to look at him anymore. "And you left."

Tony just sat there, having no idea how to comfort her. She was a big girl, he knew that and he had accepted that, but he forgot that she needed him to treat her like a little girl sometimes. "Melody," Tony spoke, trying his best to keep his voice steady. "I am never going to leave your side." Tony couldn't help the guilt he was feeling. It was impossible to get away from after she said something like that. "Not again."

Melody let out shallow breaths, feeling herself finally getting back to normal. She turned around to face Tony, wiping away some of her tears, making Tony feel even worse. "I love you." She mumbled before throwing her arms around his neck.

"I love you too." He spoke in a relieved voice at the fact that she came back to him so quickly. He wrapped his arms around her waist, pulling her close to him, never wanting to let go ever again. He really was blessed.

"What the hell was that?" Harley asked, causing them to both break out of the hug to look at him.

Tony looked up at the kid, knowing the perfect thing to do. He picked up some snow and threw it at him, nailing him right in the face. "Your fault." Tony told him, causing Melody to give him a disapproving glace, but she still held a smile on her face, remembering what he had told her. "You spazzed her out."

"Okay," Melody spoke, giving Tony an annoyed tone, but Harley was just smiling back and forth at the two. He could feel the tension between the two from earlier, but now, it was simply resolved. "Back to business." She looked over to Harley, noticing the smile he was trying to wipe off his face. "Chad Davis…does he have any relatives around? Mom maybe? Mrs. Davis? Where is she?"

"Where she always is." Harley spoke with a slight shrug.

"See," Tony spoke, making a hand gesture towards Harley. "Now you're being helpful."

* * *

The two walked down the street, Melody in her red baseball cap, green army jacket and a white t-shirt with black quarter sleeves on. They were trying to keep their heads low in fear that they would be recognized especially since they both had one of the most popular faces in the country.

With it close to Christmas time, the streets were flooded with people Christmas shopping and being with friends before the hectic life of Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. With all of that, they could blend in with no problem

That's when Tony ran into a woman with a choppy haircut, her fiery red hair to match. She had a scar along her cheek and her eyes were a deep brown. When Melody turned around to see who it was who had dropped something from Tony's crash into her, she felt her stomach drop. She noticed her. This was someone she had seen walking around, following them earlier. "You dropped this," Tony spoke while handing her some kind of wallet.

Tony couldn't stop staring at the scars on her face the closer she got, but Melody couldn't stop staring her down. "Nice haircut." She spoke in that way only girls could. What they were saying was polite, but the tone was very much a bitch tone. "It suits you."

She gave Melody a nasty look, realizing what she was doing and realizing that she knew who she was. "Nice watch." She spoke as she looked down to Tony's wrist.

"Limited edition." Tony defended while showing it off.

"Oh," She spoke with a flirty smile towards Melody. "I don't doubt it." Melody rolled her eyes while looking back and forth between the two, hating the flirting that was going on with the enemy. The redhead's gaze went back to Melody, giving her another nasty look before saying, "Have a good evening."

Melody nodded at her while looking her up and down. She didn't know what she was going to do to them, but she knew it was going to be in a short amount of time.

Tony and Melody ducked into the bar, Melody putting her hands in her pockets and looking straight forward. "She was following us a while back. That means the Mandarin's people are here and we've got about a minute tops to get our information and get out before we're attacked." Tony began to look behind him, but Melody nudged him. "Don't turn around!"

He gave her an insane look, remembering the woman again, but Melody continued her gaze forward, not trying to alert any suspicion if others were watching them. "How do you know that?"

She gave Tony a sarcastic smile with a bit of a shrug. "That's what's happened since 'SHIELD is all I've become'."

Tony rolled his eyes at the mention of their fight back in Malibu while putting his hand on the small of her back to guide her forward in the crowd of the rowdy drunk.

They found a woman at a table all to herself, sipping on a drink and letting dog tags float right above the surface of the table. They looked to each other, Tony quickly ordering drinks for the two before they walked over to Mrs. Davis.

"Mrs. Davis," Tony spoke, causing her to look up as he placed his drink down on the table. "Mid if I join you?"

She just had so much hurt in her eyes, Melody and Tony both obviously seeing that any amount of movement was paining while knowing her son was taken from this world. "Free country." She spoke with a shrug as Tony took in a deep sigh. He didn't know what he would do if he lost Melody like that.

"That it is." Melody spoke, sitting in the chair closest to Mrs. Davis as Tony sat in the one across from her.

Tony took off his cap as Melody shrugged out of her jacket while crossing her arms on the table, ready to listen. "Alright," Mrs. Davis spoke while looking back and forth at the two. "Where would you like to start?"

They could imagine how much she had been torn apart since her son had killed innocents too. She probably got family members running up to curse her and her son. That's what they thought had hurt her the most. Not just that her son was dead, but how it happened and who it affected.

"We just want to say sorry for you loss." Tony spoke simply with a shrug, sharing a glance with Melody before looking back to her.

"And," Melody spoke, giving Tony the same glance he had just given her. "We want to know what you think happened."

She stared at Melody for a few extra moments, causing her to pick up a file Melody had been eyeing ever since they sat down. "I brought your damn file, bitch." Melody blinked a couple of times, definitely not expecting that reaction as she slid it to her. "Take it and go." She brought her drink to her lips again as Melody began sifting through the file. "Whatever was in here, he wanted no part of it."

"Clearly you're waiting for someone else." Tony spoke, still angry that she had just called Melody a bitch. "Supposed to meet somebody here?"

"Yeah." She spoke in a kind of guilty voice.

That's when Tony looked over the file, finding other people listed on it. One of the names was Taggart, J. That's when he remembered the dog tags that were found at the Chinese Theater.

Tony calmly closed the file, taking Melody by surprise, wondering what he saw that she didn't. "Mrs. Davis," He spoke calmly, moving closer to get a better look at her. "Your son didn't kill himself. I guarantee you, he didn't kill anyone."

She looked back and forth at the two with wide eyes, not understanding what he was talking about, but what he said did give her hope. "What?" She whispered out.

"Someone used him." Melody spoke with a nod, deciding Tony had just figured something out that had confirmed her suspicions. That's when it all hit her. Aldrich and Zeke showed her and Pepper something that could make humans into weapons…but if they overheat or in reacts differently, they blow up. "As a weapon." She spoke that part almost to herself, all of it just finally kicking in.

Mrs. Davis moved her hand forward, placing it on Melody's, looking her straight in the eye, remembering the woman's voice, but realizing it just wasn't as soft as Melody's. "You're not the person who called me after all, are you?"

Melody opened her mouth, about to speak, but she was interrupted by a badge slamming onto the table. They all jumped, looking up the owner just to see the redhead all over again. Melody let out an annoyed sigh while leaning into the chair. "Told you one minute tops."

"Actually, Mrs. Davis," The redhead spoke after cutting Melody a dirty look. "I'm the one who called you."

She looked to Tony, giving him a slight smile as Tony looked down at the badge in confusion, realizing that this is what he gave her when he bumped into her. Suddenly, she grabbed him by the wrist, slamming him down on the table while pulling out her handcuffs. "Dad!" Melody screamed out as she stood up. She couldn't help calling him "dad" sometimes. It would just slip out. Especially when she was scared.

"What the hell is going on here?" The sheriff asked as Melody quickly picked up the dog tags and stuffed them in her jacket pocket before the redhead could even think about it.

The two girls shared a dirty look before the redhead turned back to the sheriff. "It's called an arrest." She spoke as she picked Tony up, cuffing the other wrist before throwing him down on the ground.

Melody looked to her, taking everything in her not to slap the shit out of her right here and right now. She moved to Tony, helping him sit up and making sure he was all right. The redhead continued chatting with the sheriff as Melody checked Tony out. "Are you okay?"

"The file." He whispered into her ear.

Melody turned around to look at Mrs. Davis, giving her a nod. Mrs. Davis took the file and slid it under the door that led into the kitchen.

The redhead's hand began to glow orange, Melody's mouth dropping, realizing that her speculations were right. This was Extremis. She slammed the red hot badge into the sheriff's face, sending everyone into a frenzy before she reached her other hand, plunging it into his gut. Melody had to look away, hearing shots getting fired by her. She turned to Tony, knowing they needed a plan. "Distract her, lead her away. I'll get the file. We'll meet back up after."

"But Melody." Tony started, only worried about what was going to happen to her.

"Just listen to me for once in your life." Melody spoke while locking eye contact with him.

He sighed, thinking of his mother's eyes in that moment. He had to listen to her. She was the expert on this stuff. He had to give her the wheel. He jumped up, looking over to her and running to the other side of the bar to lead her away from Melody. "Hey," He yelled out at the readhead. "Hot wings!" She looked to him, giving him a hateful stare as Melody stayed on the floor, trying not to be seen by her. "You want a party? You and me! Let's go!"

Tony ran out as she followed with a slow walk. Melody crawled over and with all the insanity going on, she found Mrs. Davis, standing her to her feet. "You've got to get out of here." Melody demanded while pushing her forward. "Go!" Mrs. Davis ran out the door and Melody picked up her Army jacket before darting into the kitchen, only thought on getting the file.

* * *

Tony ran outside to find Savin, the security guard accompanying Killian and Zeke at Stark Industries, stepping out of a town car with hot coffee in his hand. He gave Tony a smile, throwing his coffee up in cheers as his eyes began to glow orange just like the redhead.

Tony turned around quickly, trying to find someplace else to hide as Savin pulled out a gun. He aimed it right at Tony and it would have been a perfect shot if Harley wouldn't have thrown a snowball at him. Savin turned around to see Harley peeking out from behind a pole, making it up in his mind that he was going after him next.

Tony ducked behind a car, noticing that someone else was hiding behind it. He gave the man a slight nod, appreciating this second to catch his breath. "Crazy, huh?" He spoke in the most casual voice he could manage.

"Yeah." The man spoke with a simple nod, finding his cool with his hiding place, laying side by side with a car parallel parked by a curb.

Tony looked behind him, making sure he had a chance to get away before looking back to him. "Watch this." Tony ran forward, getting up the momentum before throwing himself through a bakery shop window with his back.

* * *

Melody ran out of the kitchen while tucking the file in the inside pocket of her jacket. She stopped dead in her tracks when she saw who was waiting for her. Now she knew this was Aldrich's work. Savin was waiting for her. "I knew you were beautiful the second I saw you walk up with Pepper Potts." He spoke as the two began circling each other. "It was an easy competition. Now I get why Zeke's been so obsessed with you." Melody clenched her teeth at the sound of his name, only growing to hate him even more. "So, I'll try not to mess that beautiful face up."

He tried to kick her, but she caught his foot with her own foot. He then dragged her down with him, the two crushing a table as they fell on top of it. Melody moved for his head, digging her nails into it as he screamed. She finally got on her knees, kneeing him in the head before getting up and taking that time for his recovery to run out through the front door.

Savin sat up slightly and looked off in the direction she had run to. He chuckled slightly looking at his empty syringe. He knew she wouldn't notice what he had done with all that adrenaline pumping through her. Extremis was pumping through her body and she probably still had no clue.

* * *

Tony had stood up from his crash, but when he stood up, he saw that the redhead had obtained a gun. She cocked the gun back as he ran, ducking behind the front register just as the gun went off. He hurried, hiding at the edge of the corner before turning around to run back to the kitchen, but when he turned around, she was right there.

She grabbed him by the shoulders, forcing him to stand up before throwing him into a wall. She punched him in the face, causing him to bend down from the impact. She then grabbed him by the arm, flipping him over. He could feel his head throbbing from that hit he took, but he got back up, managing to get his cuffs on her neck just as she began to turn orange to burn the metal away.

He fell back before shaking what was left of the cuffs off. Tony reached for the oil nearby, throwing it forward so it created a path before kicking the cuffs into it, sparking a fire.

Melody threw the back door to the bakery open, immediately seeing the fire and then Tony. She looked to him, knowing just what to do. She pulled the gas line on the stove, pulled the dog tags from her jacket pocket and turned the microwave on. "You walked right into this one." Tony spoke as she pulled him up from the ground, the two standing close to each other while backing up. "I've dated hotter chicks than you."

She burst through the door to get into the kitchen, the two jumping back slightly, knowing he could kill them in a minute. "That's all you got?" She asked, getting closer to the two while Melody tugged on Tony's sleeve, knowing they had to get out of there right now. "A cheap trick and a cheesy one liner?"

"Sweetheart," Tony spoke quickly while the two backed up through the door. "That could be the name of my autobiography."

They hurried out of the kitchen, stopping in the back hallway. Tony grabbed Melody, pulling her down to hide behind an ice box, pulling out the door as a form of protection right as the place exploded.

Melody felt this automatic ringing in her ear and she was stunned for a moment. She began to move in slow motion it felt like. She stood up with Tony following right behind her to get out, but she immediately lost her balance, finding herself falling forward, only having her hands to catch her. She straightened herself out, Tony following even closer behind from the fall she had just experienced. This time, when trying to walk, her legs felt like rubber so she fell back. Tony caught her back about mid waist and used his other arm to scoop up her legs.

He didn't know _what_ was wrong with her, but he knew that she needed help. Melody had this burning sensation all throughout her body, it felt like she was burning from the inside out. "It hurts." She moaned out to Tony who was looking around, trying to find help for her. All he found was the redhead hanging from one of the power lines. "It burns."

He then heard bolts coming undone and when he looked up, he saw the legs of the water tower turning that hot orange. Tony looked down at Melody, knowing she needed medical attention, but at the same time, he had to keep her safe from all of these guys. He ran as fast as he could, slowly bringing her to the ground next to chain link fence. He got right next to her, putting one of her hands on the fence and the other in his hand. "Hold on." He told her intensely. "Just like how I didn't let go of your hand in Malibu, you're not gonna let go of mine here." She nodded before letting out a few groans, completely breaking his heart, wishing there was something he could do to fix her. Tony looked up quickly, just in time to see the dome of the water tower fall. He shut his eyes and held onto Melody as tight as he could.

When the water cleared, they realized they were caught up in the framework of the actual tower. Melody's leg was stuck along with Tony's foot. Melody felt that water drenching her as one of the best feelings. It was so cold, but once it passed, she felt the burning all over again. She let out more groans, feeling herself become dry in seconds from all the heat passing through her body.

Tony used one of the spare parts that fell of the framework to try to get his foot loose, but he was interrupted by the voice of the little boy. "Let me go!"

"Help me." Savin imitated with Harley thrown over his shoulder. The two looked to him, feeling hopeless, not knowing what to do next. "Help me." Savin laughed slightly, moving Harley so he was right over Savin's heart. "Anyway," Tony continued trying to get his foot free, knowing he had to do anything to protect Harley. "What would you like for Christmas?" He asked Harley with a sick smile.

"Mr. Stark, Miss. Barnes, I am so sorry." Harley pleaded, still squirming all around to try and get free.

"No," Savin spoke as his eyes began to glow orange. That's when Melody realized what was happening. They had this fiery mass in their body…and now, so did she. "I think what he was trying to say is, 'I want my goddamn file'."

"It's not your fault, kid." Tony spoke while shaking his head, becoming even more worried at the sight of Savin's hand glowing orange right on Harley's chest. "Remember what Mel told you about bullies?"

Melody gave him a hopeful look, knowing that if she couldn't make it out of this town alive, she needed Harley to. His eyes grew wide, the realization hitting him instantly. Melody nodded her head at him and with a smile on his face, he blew the harmless missile off in his face.

Savin fell back while dropping Harley, giving him a chance to run off as far as he could from all of this. "You like that, West World?!" Tony yelled once Harley got free. "That's the thing about smart guys." Tony spoke once Savin stood up. "We always cover our ass." He quickly pulled a thruster out of his sleeve, aiming it right at Savin, sending a blast at him, knocking him down.

Tony studied him, realizing he wasn't moving and he realized that with these guys, you couldn't tell if they were dead or knocked out. Tony and Melody weren't going to stay long enough to find out. Tony quickly got his foot out free and then got Melody's leg out, but she was still moaning.

He began to walk off with her in his arms, but stopped once simple movement was hurting her. "It burns!" She yelled as he slowly and carefully placed her down on the snow, hoping it would help. She looked to Tony, giving the most pained face he had ever seen from her. "Tony." She moaned.

"I know, baby." He whispered as he unzipped her jacket, guessing just like she had what she was going on. He pulled her sleeves all the way up, seeing the orange travel up through her veins and all the way inside her shirt. She let out an even bigger scream than before, bringing pain to Tony's entire heart, worried that this… _thing_ going up to her heart would actually kill her. "No!" He screamed as her scream went on. She was in pain and he couldn't fix it. "I don't know what to do!" He finally yelled out panicked.

That's when it all stopped. Her screams. Her pain. All of it was just gone. Tony and Melody sat there for a moment, just looking at each other, not knowing what to do. "What the hell was that?" Melody asked as slowly as possible.

Tony looked to her, not sure what to tell her at all. "I thought…that thing…"

"Yeah." Melody spoke with a shrug, knowing Tony couldn't put this into words. "So did I, but it just stopped."

Tony moved forward, about to touch her arm, but she jerked it back. "I'll burn you!"

"Just," He spoke in a calming voice, but she still gave him a look of doubt. "Let me try this out." She looked down at her arm, letting out deep worried breaths. "Think about it as best as you can."

"Trust me," Melody scoffed out. "I'll never forget that pain."

Tony moved forward as Melody stayed focused on her arm and the pain she had felt, but when Tony touched her arm, nothing happened. Melody looked up at him, confusion all over her face, not even feeling an ounce of it left. She thought she would feel stronger or weaker or something, but she didn't feel different at all. Tony touched her arm again, this time for longer, but still, nothing happened.

"This is bizarre." Melody spoke while shaking her head rapidly, not knowing what to think about any of this.

"Agreed." Tony spoke as he continued looking at her. "But I came close to something like this once."

Melody looked up at him eagerly. "So do I still have it in me?"

"I don't…" Tony took a deep sigh, knowing there was no way he could get an answer for that question until he got her in a lab. "Know."

Melody looked up at him with wide eyes. "Well, if my immune system can fight off something that is designed to make you into a fiery demon, I think I'm like the freaking Virgin Mary or something." Tony pulled his mouth to the side, knowing she was the exact opposite of the _Virgin_ Mary, but she did have a point. Something was going on in her body.

And it was something incredible. Melody looked down, shaking her head slightly, not knowing what to do in this moment. "Tony," She practically whispered out. "What if I become like one of them?"

He looked her up and down, knowing she was just as scared as he was if something was happening to her. "Hey," He spoke, picking her chin up to look him in the eye. "Remember what I said? I'm not going to let anything happen to you and I'm not gonna leave you. Not again." Melody nodded as Tony pulled her in for a hug. He rubbed her back in small circles, trying his best to comfort her. "We're gonna figure this out. I promise you." And Melody didn't think there was a truer promise Tony had ever made.

* * *

Tony and Melody began to hurry back to the town car that Savin had walked out of with the file in Melody's hands. They thought it was the least he could do since he tried to kill them. Especially since they had to play rock, paper, scissors to find out who was going to take the keys off his body. "You're welcome." They suddenly heard a few feet away from them.

They both turned over to look at Harley walking over to them with a blanket wrapped around his shoulders. "For what?" Tony asked, half turning to him. "Did I miss something?"

"Me," Harley spoke excitedly while he hit Tony's arm, causing a smile on Melody's face. "Saving your life."

"A:" Tony spoke while putting his finger up. "Saved you first." Melody rolled her eyes at him, but continued to walk ahead with the smile on her face. "B: Thanks, sort of." He reached out for the file, wanting to begin looking through just like Melody had been doing. "And C: if you do someone a solid, don't be a yutz, alright? Just play it cool. Otherwise, you'll come off as a grandiose."

Melody moved to the passenger's side of the car while Tony moved to the driver's side, Harley still following excitedly. "Unlike you?" They both stopped as Tony opened the car door. He looked over to Melody, causing her to give a shrug before he looked back over at Harley. "Admit it," They both looked back to him, Melody's smile simply getting wider. She would kind of miss him. "You need me. We're connected."

Melody stifled a laugh as Tony moved forward, putting his baseball cap on Harley's head. "What I need is for you to go home, be with your mom, keep your trap shut, guard the suit and stay _connected_ to the telephone because if one of us calls, you better pick up." He then looked up dramatically as Melody rolled her eyes before getting in the car. "Can you feel that?" He clapped his hand on Harley's shoulder, looking him right in the eye. "We're done here." He looked to where Harley was standing with sigh. "Move out of the way or I'll run you over. Bye kid."

He hopped in the car, leaving Harley just standing there. Melody's arms were crossed once Tony got inside. When he looked at her death glare, he knew what he had to do. He turned on the car and then slowly rolled down the window. He let out a half smile at the sight of Harley still standing there despite what Tony had just told him. He would kind of miss him too. "I'm sorry, kid. You did good."

"So now you're just gonna leave me here…like my dad?"

Melody's mouth dropped open, knowing exactly what this kid was doing. Tony put on his best thinking face before nodding. "Yeah. Wait, you're guilt tripping me, aren't you?"

He pulled his blanket in closer, giving his best puppy dog face. "I'm cold."

"I can tell." Tony spoke with a pout as he put the car into gear. "You want to know how I can tell. Because we're connected." With that, Tony sped off, leaving Harley still standing there. Melody let out a laugh as Tony continued to shake his head. "Why did we have to get help from a kid? I hate kids."

"He was probably the smartest person we had come across in that town…" She let Tony think it over, leaving him to shrug in agreement. "And you do not hate kids."

"But I do." He argued right back.

"You didn't hate me." She spoke while crossing her arms.

"That's different. You're you." She shook her head at him. "You're my daughter." He spoke suddenly, causing her to look over at him with wide eyes. She knew Tony felt about her that way, but he had never actually said it. He had never actually called her his daughter before. He wanted to avoid that term as much as possible since she already had a father, but she was so much more than a niece to him. He raised her. And she was his. No matter what the bloodwork said. "And I love you."

 _ **Aw! I wanted to end you guys on a sweet note to a long chapter. What do you think about this whole Extremis thing happening with Melody? Hope you enjoyed! See ya next time!**_


	9. Anger

**_Who else is seriously loving all this Tony and Mel time? Because I am! We've got another majorly Tony and Mel chapter with a bit of Emily and Rhodey. We'll find out what's been going on with Clint and Pepper in the next chapter so don't think I've forgotten. Hope you guys enjoy and remember to review! It honestly means so much to me! Thank you and have a fantastic day/afternoon/night whenever you're readying this! :)_**

Tony and Melody sped down the almost empty highway. They didn't expect much. That was why their traveling was so easy. Tomorrow was Christmas Eve and if anyone wanted to be anywhere, they were there by now. They were suddenly interrupted by a high pitch sound coming from the radio. They looked to it with a fearful face before looking to each other.

Across the country, the Mandarin's symbol flashed on all TV screens, computer screens and anyone's radio. The screen cut to riots, explosions and fire, making Melody jump just at the sound of it. The screen then cut to a close up of the Mandarin, giving the camera a menacing look. "Mr. President," he announced, making everyone tense up at his voice, especially the president. "Only two lessons remain and I intend to finish this by Christmas morning."

The camera zoomed out, showing a man lying on the floor, the Mandarin pointing a gun only a few inches from the side of his head. "Meet Thomas Richards. Good strong name. Good strong job." Everyone in America felt their pulse pick up as they watched, knowing this man was ruthless. "Thomas here is an accountant for the Roxxon Oil Corporation," he nodded, almost sadly. "And I'm sure he's a really good guy." He pouted his lip a little before taking the gun off safety. "I'm gonna shoot him in the head."

They could hear Thomas's tears worsen as Tony slammed on the breaks and pulled over to the side of the road. Both he and Melody were shaking, both looking to the radio in fear of what was going to happen next. "Live on your television in thirty seconds." Thomas's cries got even louder as Melody and Tony grabbed each other's hands. The Mandarin sat back in his chair while pointing over to the old school telephone resting on a table next to him. "The number for this telephone is in your cell phone. Exciting, isn't it? Imagining how it got there."

He moved forward again, putting the gun back to Thomas's head. "America, if your president calls me in the next half-minute, Tom lives." He took a dramatic pause while looking into the camera menacingly. "Go."

"What if he doesn't call?" Tony asked while shaking his head and breathing heavily.

"He's going to call." Melody assured him while shaking her head. "He has to. These are his people."

"I can't just sit here!" Tony snapped at her.

"I know exactly how you're feeling!" She yelled while turning to look at him. "Because I feel helpless too!"

Both of their brains stopped, dropping the fight, dropping the thought of what they were going to say next. Their only thought was on the ringing of that telephone. They both looked to the radio, sharing an intense silence of relief that the Mandarin's phone was ringing.

After a few rings, the Mandarin leaned forward and shot Tom in the head. Melody screamed as Tony jumped from the loud sound of the shot. Melody let out a few gasps, looking to the radio, desperately hoping that Tom wasn't dead. Tony, he looked to the radio with rage bubbling in his whole body.

There seemed to be a silence passing over the nation from this broadcast. A terrorist just shot an American citizen on their national television and radio airwaves. The Mandarin was staring into the camera, beginning to shake his head. "There is just one lesson left, President Ellis; so, run away, hide, kiss your children goodbye because nothing, not your army, not your red, white and blue attack dog can save you." He paused again, looking into the camera, almost as if he was looking everyone in the nation right in the eye. "I'll see you soon."

The line went dead and the two looked to each other, not sure what to do. Melody was screaming for help in those blue eyes of hers. So, Tony did the only thing he could do even if it was the exact opposite of what he _wanted_ to do. "We keep going." He told Melody without any hint of fear in his voice he had to work so hard to maintain. "We find this guy and we kill him."

Melody took a deep breath and nodded. Their nerves were still shot, Tony displaying this as he slowly put the car in gear and moved forward.

* * *

Melody continued to look through the file, her nerves still a little unnerved by what happened, but she knew they had to figure this all out before they met up with the Mandarin. Tony looked over at her through the corner of his eye, knowing they needed some kind of communication going through them after what had just happened. "Let me see." He spoke while reaching his hand out for the file.

"Nope." She answered in a bland tone. "Eyes on the road."

He rolled his eyes and pouted, but looked back to the road. "We know Aldrich and Zeke are behind this." She spoke as she put the file down on her lap. "But how can we prove it so they can be punished for what they did?"

"His glowing body guard isn't enough?" Tony spoke in a half joke.

"No." Melody spoke while crossing her arms. "If they were smart, they wouldn't even list him as an employee of AIM." She shook her head while massaging her temple with a deep sigh. "This whole thing is just one big cover up." Melody looked back down at the file, noticing the end of a paper sticking out. MIA was written in the top corner. That's when she realized it. The paper was face down. MIA written in marker was the marker bleeding into the back of the page.

She picked the page up, Tony looking to her with a confused face while she held it up to the light. Her eyes got wider when she turned it over, finding that it was actually AIM on the front of the page. They both turned to each other, Tony matching Melody's wide eyes. "Go." She spoke forcefully as his foot stepped down on the gas. "I need Rhodey and I need a comsat to find this shit. A big ass one. Fucking huge."

"Got it." Tony spoke as he gripped the wheel even tighter, recognizing that tone and those curses from anywhere. She got it from her father and it still scared the shit out of Tony to hear it from her lips.

"NOW!"

* * *

Rhodey pushed through a cave, finding a group of Arab men standing around with a video camera. They all flinched when he got in, scrambling around, and trying to find an escape, but there was none. "Don't move!" Rhodey threatened as the missiles from his suit pointed right for them.

They stood there, feeling very threatened for the moment until a ringing came from his suit. They all turned their heads to the side and Rhodey stood there, embarrassed, knowing he should probably take the call. "Uh…" one of the men turned his head to the side, knowing this had never happened to him before. "Hang on a second."

He brought his hand to his ear, so only he would be able to hear the conversation that was about to happen. "Hello?"

"You ever had a chick straddling you," Melody slowly looked over to Tony with a tired and disapproving look on her face at the way he was starting this conversation out. "And then you look up and everything starts glowing from the inside out. Kind of a bright orange."

"Yeah, I've had that." He spoke almost totally freaked out and Melody couldn't blame him. "Who is this?"

"It's us, Rhodes." Melody spoke, looking up to the speaker with a smile.

Rhodey let out a little chuckle, just happy that the two were alive. "Now," Tony spoke, taking the files from Melody's hand, expecting her to just let him run everything like she used to. "Last time I went missing if I remember correctly, you went looking for me." Rhodey shook his head at Tony's usual attitude, appreciating that being missing hadn't totally took its toll on them. "What are you doing?"

"A little talking," Rhodey spoke, looking back to the men, knowing they weren't going anywhere. "Making friends in Pakistan, what are you doing?"

Tony opened his mouth to talk, but Melody yanked the file out of his hands, giving him a smug look. "My idea, my command, my leading." She took a sigh and looked up at the speaker while Tony looked to her impressed that she was willing to stand up to him like that. "Your big re-design, your big re-brand that was AIM, right?"

"Yeah." He spoke almost confused.

Melody looked to Tony with a slight smile on her face, knowing he had just proved her point. "Okay," Tony spoke as Melody threw the file down before picking her knees up to listen closely. "We're gonna find a heavy duty comsat right now."

"We need your login." Melody spoke almost apologetically.

"Same as it's always been." Rhodey spoke with a shrug. "War Machine 68."

"And password, please?" Tony asked, looking up at the speaker, totally done with everything they had to do just to _find_ the Mandarin, let alone kill him.

"Well, look, I've gotta change it every time you hack in, Tony."

"This isn't the 80s," Tony spoke with the shake of the head at how outdated their best friend was. "Nobody says 'hack' anymore. Give me your login."

Rhodey sighed, knowing they were going to laugh. "'War Machine Rocks' with an X. All caps." As if on cue, they both immediately started laughing. The men he had cornered even started laughing, but immediately stopped once he put a gun up in their direction. "Yeah, okay." He spoke, their laughs getting a little too intense.

"That is," Tony spoke as his smile went away. "So much better than Iron Patriot."

Tony immediately turned the car around, remembering what he saw a little ways back. A beauty pageant. A televised beauty pageant.

* * *

Rhodey was exiting the cave, making sure that the men inside were taking care of. They weren't the Mandarin, but they were a part of a terrorist group which is punishable by the law. As he walked out of the cave, he began to hear movement. He began to get very quiet, moving as stealthily as possible in a red, white and blue metal suit. Suddenly, out of nowhere was a powerful kick, sending him back into the rock wall. He couldn't even defend himself because right when he caught back up with what was going on, she had him cornered.

He had to blink a couple of times, finally realizing who it was, taking off his face mask to see her with his own eyes. "Emily?"

She looked him up and down with a nod. "Hey."

He looked back to the hold he had her in, taking a deep sigh. "Em, you wanna let go?"

She looked him right in the eye, her business stare. The stare she used to take out bad guys with. "On one condition."

Rhodey sighed while rolling his eyes, but really, in her SHIELD suit, he thought she was beautiful and bad ass all tied into one. That accent only made it better. "And what is that?"

Emily smirked, but she was really realizing how well that blue brought out his cheekbones. His best facial feature to her. She couldn't focus on that right now. She had to focus on her daughter. She had to be her main priority. Her face switched from flirtatious to business in about two seconds, signaling Rhodey that she meant business. "I need your help to find my daughter."

Rhodey began to shift uncomfortably, realizing that Melody probably hadn't even made contact with her mother. "She called me."

Emily moved closer to him, her face screaming all the anger she didn't have to vocalize. "Why?"

Rhodey had to blink a couple of times, the way she screamed when she wanted things her way made him think of Melody, now realizing where she had gotten it from. "I don't know." He spoke honestly, slightly afraid. "They asked me for my login for AIM."

"They?" He nodded again. "Tony and Melody are still together." She spoke with a kind of relief.

"AIM is fishing something up." Rhodey told her, causing her to look up at him with hopeful eyes. "If we found out what it is and what Tony and Melody find off of their server, we can probably find them both. So, yes, I will help you find your daughter."

Emily looked to him before getting on her tip toes to kiss him on the lips. She just couldn't help herself in that moment. He was being vulnerable with her and so willing to help. Rhodey loved every second on their impromptu kiss. He kind of wanted a little more. Emily pulled away once she realized what she was doing, taking deep breaths with their sexual tension still lingering in the air. "Thank you." She spoke breathlessly before turning around on her heels.

Rhodey continued to stand there, not sure of what to say or do. All he knew now was that the attraction was mutual and that could make them both very happy. "Damn." They were about to go for a ride.

* * *

Tony had on the cowboy hat Harley had given him and Melody, the baseball cap. They both wore the hats down low, trying to hide any bit of their face that could possibly be seen. The man who owned the van was walking around, talking angrily on the phone to someone, giving them the perfect chance to sneak in.

Melody and Tony immediately sat down at the rolling chairs, Melody immediately hitting the mute button. "Remember when I was in a beauty pageant?" She asked as she looked around the van, trying to find the ISDN signal.

"I told your mother it was a bad idea." He spoke as he put his hands up in defense.

"I threw up."

Tony shuddered, the memory coming back to him. "All over the judge's panel."

When Melody finally found it on a laptop that wasn't being used, she looked to Tony with a disapproving glance. "I said it needs to be fucking huge. This won't even run a YouTube video for thirty seconds."

He opened his mouth, about to argue with her when the van door opened. They both looked to each other out of the corner of their eyes in panic. "Excuse me, I don't know who – "

They both turned around at the same time, giving him a playful look while shushing him, both their fingers to their lips. His mouth immediately dropped and they both smiled, knowing it was about time someone could tell who they were by just an up close look.

"Mom," He spoke into the phone, causing Melody to turn her head to the side, remembering how angry he sounded earlier. "I have to call you back. Something magical is happening." He closed the phone, Melody looking to the open door worriedly, knowing he was about to freak out. "Tony Stark and Melody Barnes are in my van."

"Keep it down." Melody spoke, continuing to look out, making sure no one had taken notice yet.

"Tony Stark and Melody Barnes are in my van." He repeated.

"No they're not." Tony spoke, trying his best to calm him.

"I knew you were both still alive!"

"Come in." Melody whispered to him, noticing someone looking over, but she didn't think they had a clear view inside. "Close the door."

"Sure." He spoke as he climbed in, Melody looking out just as that person had looked away. Melody let out a relived breath as the door closed, looking to him with a smile. Tony did the same, shushing him again, but the smile was all through his lips. "Wow, can I just say, sir – " They both nodded. "I am your biggest fan." Melody nodded, giving him an encouraged nod. "You too, Miss. Barnes." He let out an excited breath. "Melody Barnes is in my van.

She turned her head to the side as Tony moved his finger up to talk. "Is this your van?" He asked while looking around. "Is anyone else gonna come in?"

"No." He spoke, that smile still on his face. "It's just us."

"What's your name?" Tony asked while getting up to shake his hand, Melody following.

"Gary." He was just so mesmerized by them.

Gary shook Tony's hand, putting another hand around his, still so amazed with all of this. Tony followed his example, giving him a worried look. Some of their fans could be a little…frightening. "Right there is fine." Tony began to laugh as Gary continued to mumble his surprise. "We get a lot of this. It's okay."

Melody nodded in agreement as Gary finally let go of Tony's hand. "Can I just say?" Gary asked again.

"What do you want?" Melody mumbled, feeling herself being tested as far as her politeness could go in this situation.

"I don't know if you can tell," he spoke while looking over to Tony. "But I have patterned my whole look after you." He took off his cap, beginning to run his hands through it, Melody and Tony both looking unimpressed. "My hair's a little – " His fingers running through his hair began to get self-conscious. "It's not right because there's no product in it."

"It's fine." Tony told him with the shake of the head, knowing it probably wouldn't get any better.

"Miss. Barnes," he spoke while looking to Melody excitedly. "I don't want to make things awkward for you, but I do have to show you – " He picked up his sleeve, revealing a tattoo. It didn't even look like Melody. "BOOM!"

Melody bit her lip as she nodded at it. "Is that supposed to be me?"

"Yeah." He spoke. She began to shake her head politely, knowing that she was about to snap. "I think you are the _hottest_ Avenger."

She nodded, giving him a polite smile. "Thank you."

She opened her mouth, about to ask Gary of what they needed from him. "I mean," She sighed, knowing this was going to be her breaking point. "I had them do it off a doll that I made." Both Melody and Tony turned their heads to the side at that. "So it's not like it's off a picture."

And that was the last straw. She went forward, grabbing him by his shoulders before shoving him into the wall of the van, making direct eye contact while Tony looked impressed with her. "Gary, listen to me for a moment." He looked right in her eyes, finding himself both scared and turned on. "I don't want to clip your wings here; we're both a little…" She looked off, trying to find the right words. "Over-excited." He nodded to her, listening to every single word. "We have an issue here. We're trying to chase bad guys, trying to grapple with something from some hard-crypt data files. We don't have enough juice."

He seemed to be following everything she was saying. "I need you to jump on the roof, recalibrate the ISDNs." He nodded, giving her some hope that he would be able to do this. "Pump it up to about forty percent."

"Got it." He spoke with an enthusiastic nod.

"It's a mission." Tony jumped in, wanting him to feel better about it after he was threatened by a 5'10 blonde who could kill him in one movement.

"Yeah." He spoke while looking to Tony, Melody knowing she had to make him feel good about this too.

"Melody needs Gary."

"And Gary needs Melody." He spoke while reaching a hand out to touch her face.

She backed up while Tony smacked his hand away. "Be quiet about it."

"Yeah." He spoke while nodding and looking down.

"Go." Melody commanded.

He got out of the van as Melody turned to Tony with a sigh. Her brows furrowed at this look he was giving her. "What?"

He shook his head that time, looking her up and down with a slight smile on his face. "Nothing. I'm just…impressed." Melody had to bite her lip to keep from the smile getting too big. Those words meant a lot to her and Tony knew it, but he was playing it cool just like Melody was.

They both waited by the computer for the knock on the side of the van, taking deep breaths of anticipation. Once it finally happened, Tony knocked back, Melody's hands already dancing across the keyboard.

She got into the AIM server with Rhodey's access, but made his access unlimited by taking down the firewall. "Nice job, Mel." Tony spoke with approval as she smiled slightly. She immediately found a file that read: Chad Davis.

She looked to her uncle with wide eyes before clicking on the video, nervous for just what she would find. "What would you say was the defining moment of your life?" The interviewer on the video asked, but Melody knew whose voice that was. Aldrich Killian.

"I think that would be the day I decided not to let my injury beat me."

"Injury." Melody mumbled, finally realizing what Extremis was originally modeled for. She found another file, noticing the face immediately as the redhead who tried to kill both her and Tony. She clicked on her video, noticing that half of her arm was missing. "This is what Extremis was originally for." Melody spoke while looking over to Tony. "It was meant to heal."

"And it somehow went terribly wrong." He added.

Melody sighed, looking away from Tony to play the redhead's video. "Please state your name for the camera." Melody's mouth dropped once she heard the voice. She looked to Tony and then back to the screen incredulously. It was Zeke's voice.

"Ellen Brandt."

"Okay, so," Both Tony and Melody's mouth dropped that time as the camera turned around. Both Zeke and Aldrich sat in front of Ellen, making their blood boil at just the sight of them. Melody got nervous, suddenly remembering she had to watch her temper especially because of what was in her, but when she looked down at her body, nothing was happening. What the hell was wrong with her? "The injections are administered periodically. Addiction will not be tolerated and those who cannot regulate will be cut from the program."

Tony moved the laptop so it was now facing only him. He was getting angry and Melody knew it, but how could she stop him? He clicked on another video, Melody looking up to the small TVs throughout the van to watch. "Once misfits, cripples, you are the next iteration of human evolution." Melody could see Zeke running around, setting up the machines with the other doctors, making her even angrier.

Tony looked up Extremis in the search bar where he found videos of all the test subjects walking into a lab. "Hi, everybody." Melody shook her head at Zeke's voice, sharing a hateful look with Tony before looking back to the screen. "Before we start, I promise you, looking back at your life there will be nothing as bitter as the memory of that glorious risk that you prudently elected to forego."

Melody shut her eyes, hearing those words so lavishly put together reminded her of the Zeke she used to know and love. Not this monster who is killing people in the name of science. "You always did have a way with words." She mumbled as she opened her eyes. This was _mad_ science.

"Today is your glory." He spoke grandly as everyone got attached to their machines with looks of anxiousness on their face. "Let's begin."

Whatever the hell it was got pumped into Ellen's body. She was whining and twitching, but right before them, the glowing orange serum replaced what was gone on her arm. There was screaming, the camera panning to one man who was throwing himself back, his sounds not of discomfort like Ellen's, but of agony. "We gotta get out of here!" Aldrich spoke as the camera panned to him. All of the personnel and a few of the patients got out, but they had to leave others behind. The man exploded, sending the rest to ash just like him.

"A bomb isn't a bomb when it's a misfire." Tony whispered to himself as they looked at the empty, fiery room.

Melody had to duck herself into Tony's chest. She was terrified. This stuff was inside of her. The stuff that just destroyed a man with no trigger. Tony petted her head as she let out fearful breaths. She finally looked up at him, her breaths still deep and ragged. "Is that what's going to happen to me?"

"No." He assured, pulling her head back to his chest while rocking her back and forth slightly. The truth was that he had no idea what was going to happen to her. "I'm not going to let that happen to you."

Tony looked back up at the video, feeling himself boil over with rage. He didn't think he had ever been this mad. The fact that this guy had put this stuff in Melody. His whole world. He had flirted with Pepper. He had destroyed his home. He separated him with the rest of his family. He wasn't mad anymore, he was furious. "The stuff doesn't always work, huh, pal?" He had to breathe angry breaths out his nose and hold onto Melody to keep from punching something. "It's faulty, but you found a buyer, didn't ya? You sold it to the Mandarin."

Melody looked up from his chest, looking back to the burning room with anger in her eyes. She was going to stop them. All of them. Even if she had to kill them. "I think that's enough proof." She looked back to Tony, him looking down at her with his eyes just as blazing as hers. "Don't you?"


	10. The Beginning of Christmas Eve

_**Hey, guys. So, I got a review a while back asking about Agents of SHIELD and I may write an episode with Melody in it as a scribble eventually, but I do have mentions of the group planned starting in this chapter. The big mention of the group is going to be in the very first scene in my Winter Soldier story. I hope you guys enjoy and remember to review!**_

Clint coughed as he woke up, feeling his whole body aching. He let out a groan as he threw his head back, only one name on his lips. "Melody." It came out in a hoarse voice, but no matter how weak he was, he would say her name with his last breath if he had to.

"Clint." Pepper moaned out.

He turned to look over at her, but even that hurt like hell. "Pepper." He spoke with that same weak voice.

She was strapped down, positioned so she was standing up. That's the one thing that really threw Clint off. He was lying down and she was sitting up. He looked around, noticing an IV pumping through him. He remembered what Zeke had told him. Zeke wanted to kill Clint. He wasn't going to trust anything they tried to put in him. He began immediately trying to tear the thing out, but a voice stopped him. "Don't." Clint looked up, terrified for what was going to happen to them.

He shared a quick look with Pepper before looking back to who was talking. He had never seen him before, but he had heard of him. Aldrich Killian. He gave a polite smile while moving to stand at the end of Clint's hospital bed. "We're trying to heal you. We didn't mean for Zeke to get so…" He looked up, trying to think of the right word before looking back to Clint. "Violent."

Clint got sight of Zeke standing towards the back of the room with an angry scowl. "Yeah, you should control your bitch!"

Aldrich laughed as he put his hands on the foot of his bed, looking him right in the eye. "We have a plan for you and Pepper here." Clint looked over to Pepper with a worried face, not sure what to do, but he knew that he had to protect her. "You, Clint," Clint looked back to Aldrich with fearful eyes. "Are too weak currently, but Pepper," Aldrich turned to look at the red head as she let out fearful gasps and Clint's breath picked up, knowing he couldn't save her from this lunatic. "You are in perfect condition."

Aldrich turned his head back, but made sure to keep looking directly at Clint. "Zeke, make sure to keep a close eye on our guest." Clint looked over to Zeke, giving him a deep glare. "Make sure he's healing right, and," He looked over to Zeke for this one. "Be nice."

Aldrich walked out of the room, snapping at a few men keeping guard at the front door. They immediately moved towards the two, beginning to wheel Pepper out of the room. "Pepper!" Clint yelled, beginning to struggle to get out of his restraints. "Pepper!"

"Clint!" She yelled right back, but she was already going out the door.

"Pepper!" Clint yelled, knowing he wouldn't be able to help her, but he could give her advice. "Don't let them win!"

The door shut and Clint was still screaming for Pepper and what they had done to her. That's when Zeke walked up to him, throwing a punch to his head. "I have to be nice," He spoke right when he got into Clint's face, Clint giving him a tight glare, never hating anyone more than he hated Zeke. "And that is me being nice."

Clint laughed while shaking his head. "Melody's going to find you and she's going to make you wish you were dead."

Zeke gave a little laugh as he looked to Clint. "Does that make you the damsel in distress?"

Clint laughed a little and shook his head. "With a hero like Melody coming for me, I won't be in distress for long."

Zeke sighed as he shook his head. "You still don't get it. She has Extremis pumping through her veins. If she gets angry around you, she will kill you."

Clint began to laugh as he shook his head. "I don't think you've seen her truly angry then because…that's how it is now." Zeke glared at him as Clint merely smiled right back. This time, Zeke hit him harder.

* * *

"You want to come with me?" Rhodey asked Emily with his head turned to the side as they were climbing out of the cave. Emily shrugged like it was the most obvious thing in the world. Rhodey sighed as he looked around, knowing what he was going to have to do if he was going to keep up searching for the Mandarin. "Then you're gonna have to hold on tight."

Emily rolled her eyes as she looked at him, just wanting to find out where her daughter was in that exact moment. "What the bloody hell does that – " She was cut off when Rhodey wrapped his arms around her and shot off into the sky. She screamed through the whole take off, but settled with loud gasps once they were steady in the air.

She was flying. Her hair was flying back and she was looking down at the whole world below her. It was kind of riveting. Now she knew why Tony and Melody loved the suits so much. They would be able to see this type of thing whenever they needed an escape.

Rhodey smiled at the wonderment in her face. That kiss was amazing, but nothing could match this view he had of her right here and right now. She looked stunning. "This is Support Team Blue 0." They both got distracted from their sights to look back to the suit. "Sending coordinates for suspected Mandarin broadcast point of origin."

The two looked to each other, and even if Emily couldn't see his face, she knew what he was asking. She nodded, knowing this was his job and they had to take care of this first before finding Tony and Melody.

He flew down once they got close, Rhodey balancing himself so Emily could get down and then Rhodey finally landed. He lifted his facemask up, looking to her with an intense gaze. "Stay here."

She rolled her eyes at him. "This isn't chivalry, Rhodey. This is sexist."

"This is my job." He spoke as he looked back to the warehouse he was about to break into. "Let me do what I do."

She rolled her eyes at him again, becoming tired of this whole thing. "I can help you." She spoke obviously, almost as if she was explaining something simple to a child.

He flicked his helmet back on his head, still looking straight at her as Emily's glare deepened. "Stay here." He walked off, leaving Emily to let out an annoyed growl while finding a rock to pout on.

Rhodey kicked the door open with his guns out, causing Emily to roll her eyes again, half hoping he would be attacked and need her help once he got in there. Suddenly, women dressed in niqabs came pouring out of the room. Emily stood up from the rock with a cocky smile as she moved, ready to go inside the warehouse to gloat to Rhodey.

Right when she was about to walk in, she noticed that one woman had stayed behind. Rhodey was making sounds of pain and her hand was glowing orange. "Shit." Emily muttered as she got into a hiding place inside the hallway leading into the sweatshop.

Rhodey fell over as the woman stood over him, taking off her head covering with a smile as her whole body continued to glow orange. She pulled out a phone, causing Emily to go further into her hiding place. "Savin, I've acquired the Patriot armor."

"Oh, no." Emily whispered to herself as she had the perfect view of Rhodey lying in his armor completely defenseless at her feet. It pained her to see him like that. "Rhodey."

"You want this suit?" He asked in a threatening voice. She just knew he was trying to stall so she could get out of there, but honestly, Emily didn't know what to do currently. She actually couldn't do anything right now. But she could go dark as soon as they left and follow it to the secret Mandarin base. "You're gonna have to pry my cold, dead body out of it."

"That's the plan, colonel." She spoke while giving him a cocky smile.

Just then, the door was kicked open, causing Emily to jump, but look to see who it was. The Mandarin's followers. They got to Rhodey, picking him up in his suit with the woman following. Once the door closed, Emily let out a breath. "Oh my god." She whispered as she got up from where she was hiding, taking deep breaths. She got a full box of sports gear, put it on the floor to get on top of it and see out the window. They were loading Rhodey into an aircraft, causing her to let out a worried sigh. "Rhodey."

She went to the belt on her spy suit, pulling out a gun that launched out trackers, hoping this one would work. Once she saw everyone get on the aircraft, she opened up the window and took a deep breath before shooting. It clicked to it like a magnet, finding the aircraft easily, causing a smile to grow on her face. "I still got it." She whispered to herself before jumping down off the box.

She pressed the button for the device in her ear that would connect her to anyone on a SHIELD line. "Hey, Fitz, I need you."

There was a pause on the line as the aircraft took off. "Supervisor Carter?" His Irish voice asked disbelieved.

"Yeah, I need you to track an aircraft."

"Well," He spoke as she could hear the clicking of a keyboard on his end. "I would need a plane number or a tracker."

"Way ahead of you."

"Let me find your personal trackers and…got it." She smiled, knowing Fitz was the perfect one to trust with this. "I'll keep you posted, Supervisor."

"You're the best, Fitz." She hung up her phone and looked around the dry desert air. "Now, I just need a ride."

* * *

Melody nervously chewed on a pen as the phone rang through the speakers of the car, waiting for what he was going to say about the suits. "Melody, get that pen out of your mouth." She rolled her eyes and practically spat the pen out with an annoyed face as it landed on the open laptop Garry had given them. It was like she was doing her elementary school homework at their home in Malibu all over again.

"Mr. Stark?" Harley asked through the speakers. "Miss. Barnes?"

"Harley," Tony spoke while tapping the steering wheel slightly. "Tell me what's happening. Give me a full report."

"I'm still eating that candy." He told Tony as Melody looked over at him like he was insane for giving him _that_ much candy all to keep him awake for their suits. "Do you want me to keep eating?"

"How much have you had?" Melody asked, completely concerned about him now.

"Two or three bowls." Melody's mouth dropped at his response.

"Can you still see straight?" Tony asked as Melody shook her head at him.

He made a sound of uncertainty as Melody put her hands on her stomach, just imagining what it felt like to eat that much candy. "Sort of."

"That means your fine." Tony spoke with a nod.

"That means you're gonna be sick." Melody mumbled under her breath as Tony gave her an annoyed stare.

"Give us Jarvis." Tony spoke anxiously, wanting to hear another familiar voice that brought him home besides Melody's.

"Jarvis," Tony asked once he heard the phone get set down at the Iron Man suit. "How are we?"

"It's totally fine, sir." Jarvis spoke in a slightly flustered voice making Melody turn her head to the side. He didn't sound totally fine. "I seem to do quite well for a stretch and then at the end of a sentence, I say the wrong cranberry."

Tony and Melody both blinked rapidly, not expecting that at all before Melody shook her head, going back to the conversation. "Did you find anything on AIM?"

"Yes, Miss. Barnes," Jarvis spoke instantly. "And you were right." Melody straightened up slightly, causing a smile to grow on her face. She missed Jarvis. He was the only man in her life that would admit she was right so quickly. "Once I factored an available AIM downlink facilities, I was able to pinpoint the Mandarin's broadcast signal."

Tony and Melody gave each other a worried look before going back to the road. "What are we talking?" Tony asked, ready to take this guy on. "The far East? Europe? Africa? Iran? Pakistan? Syria? Where is he?" Melody listened intently, a pen and paper in her hand ready to start brainstorming on a way to get there.

"Actually, sir, it's in Miami."

Melody sighed as she looked up to the speaker, putting her pen down and closing the laptop. "Okay, Harley, I'm gonna have to walk you through rebooting Jarvis's speech drive, but not right now. Where is he really? Just look on the screen and tell us where it is."

Harley looked to the screen, not sure what to tell them. "Um, it does say Miami, Florida."

"Great," Melody sang out while looking over to Tony. "That's gonna be a long drive."

"Yeah," Tony spoke with an eye roll. "Okay, first thing's first. We need the armor. How are we with it?"

"Uh," He paused as he read something off the screen. "It's not charging."

Tony slammed on the breaks as he pulled over to the side of the road, Melody having to hold onto the laptop from falling. She immediately looked over to Tony and his hands were shaking. She knew that those suits were the only way he thought he could fight for the world and save Pepper. So, to him, those suits were his lifeline. "Actually sir," Jarvis spoke, causing Tony to look up, slightly hopeful. "It is charging, but the power source is questionable, it may not succeed in revitalizing Mark 41 and Mark 42."

"What's questionable about electricity?!" He screamed out. "They're my suits and I can't…I'm not gonna."

"Tony," Melody spoke in a sympathetic voice as she looked to him.

"Oh, god, not again." He whispered as he threw the door open.

"Tony!" She yelled, putting the laptop in the seat and hurrying to get out of the car and run to his side.

He was gripping onto the open door as Melody stood close by, just staring at him, not sure what to do. "Are you having another panic attack?" Harley asked from the speakers. "I didn't even mention New York."

"Right," He spoke as he began to fall to the ground, losing his grip on the door.

"Tony!" Melody spoke as she hurried to him, grabbing him by the waist to ease him down. She was beyond worried for her uncle. The attacks were just getting worse. "Right, and then you just said it, _by name_ , while denying having said it."

Melody got down on her knees so she could look Tony right in the eye. "Hey," She spoke as he looked off. "Tony, look at me."

"Oh, god, what am I gonna do?"

"You're gonna look right at me." She commanded as she grabbed Tony's head, forcing his eyes to hers. "And you're gonna breathe." Her mind traveled back to what the nurse told her. "Just breathe. I know you can breathe."

He grabbed onto the door handle, trying to regain balance as Melody got even more flustered. She needed him to keep her sane and he was failing at that. "Harley," Melody spoke desperately, remembering something, knowing she was on the verge of a panic attack just by seeing him have a panic attack. She needed something to calm her down as well as Tony. "Do you remember what Tony told you we were right before he said our names?"

"Mechanics."

"Exactly," She spoke as she looked back to Tony. "We're mechanics. You and me. And I'm sure as hell not gonna leave you. Not when it's you and me against the world." She laughed slightly, the only thing that was keeping her from crying. "So we're going to build something…because that's what mechanics do."

He turned his head slightly, the breaths stopped and his thinking face on. That's what made Melody smile wide. She had gotten him out of it. Maybe she should be the SHIELD psychiatrist because god knows some of those people need help. "You're right."

Melody sighed, appreciating that this was the second time she was called right today. "Of course I'm right. Now," She helped him stand up, looking him right in the eye. "Take a walk and once you're ready, get in the car, I'm driving the rest of the way to Miami. You could use some sleep."

"I don't need to walk it – "

"Walk it off." She spoke through clenched teeth causing him to turn around instantly.

She got into the car, shutting the door with a sigh at what she was about to do. But she had to do this for Tony. "Harley, Jarvis, you still there?"

"Yes ma'am." Jarvis spoke as Harley said, "Yeah."

"I need you guys to do something for me." Melody spoke, looking around, making sure Tony wasn't by the car to hear what she had to say next. "I need you to pull Mark 41."

"But, Mel," Harley spoke, causing her to shut her eyes, knowing they were going to try to talk her out of it. "That's your suit. You're going to be defenseless without it."

"I agree with Mr. Harley. Miss. Barnes, if something happens to you that the suit could have prevented, Mr. Stark will be crushed. Along with Miss. Potts and Mr. Barton."

"Mr. Stark, Miss. Potts and Mr. Barton don't have the authority over my actions." She looked around again, still seeing him putting some snow on his face to cool him down. "I have my hands and knives." Melody spoke with a shrug. "The suit is all Tony has and he's gonna get it. I don't care what happens to me." Tony was coming up to the car, making Melody suddenly get nervous. "And Mr. Stark doesn't hear anything about this." Melody let out a deep sigh, knowing she was probably digging her own grave, but she knew that she would do anything to keep Tony alive and safe. "Pull it."

She sunk into the driver's seat, feeling her coffin go into the ground at the sound of the suit being taken off the charger. "It's done."

"Thanks, Harley." She spoke as a ghost before hanging up.

The door opened and closed, signaling Tony getting in, but she still didn't look at him. "I was thinking…" Tony spoke as he picked up the laptop and Melody began driving off. Tony was telling her all of these ideas he had for what to do next and Melody listened as best as she could, but her mind was distracted. She thought back on when Tony gave the whole world their address. How she felt she was the walking dead. She didn't know the true meaning of the phrase…until now.


	11. Bait

_**Hey, guys! Sorry I haven't wrote in a while I kind of just lost motivation and stopped writing for a while. I hope you guys enjoy this one and remember to review!**_

Melody drove to Miami through the whole night as Tony slept in the backseat. When he could sleep. Melody was happy for the alone time, though. It gave her a chance to think. Really think. Mostly about this decision she had made to go into the rest of this fight so vulnerable. This could be her last battle. If she walked in there without a suit with something as easily destructive as Extremis, there was a good chance she wasn't going to survive.

She looked into the rearview mirror at Tony sleeping in the backseat, taking a deep breath as she looked forward at the road again. Tony would be devastated if something happened. He would blame himself and might even try to kill himself, but he would defeat the Mandarin. He would have Pepper and Clint back. Those two would ease the pain with the rest of his family around.

Clint. She had no idea where he was. He could be holed up in a hotel somewhere with Pepper. But she knew those two. They weren't just going to sit idly by. She just wished she could talk to them. Both of them. Tell them she loved them before going into a losing battle. Try to make them understand just what she was doing and how it was for them just as much as it was for Tony.

Then there was her mother. And Steve. They would murder her if she survived this. Natasha too. Natasha would probably do all the killing while the others held her down. She hoped they would understand just like she was hoping Tony, Clint and Pepper would understand.

Who was she kidding? None of them would understand. She didn't even understand. This was dumb. She was all about sacrificing for a cause that meant something, but this was just insane. "I have to call Harley." She whispered as she picked up the phone.

"For what?"

She screamed slightly as she looked over to see Tony letting out a loud yawn while stretching. "We're in Miami already?" He asked as he moved forward to look at the signs on the highway. "That was quick."

Melody scoffed while rolling her eyes. "Yeah, well you were sleeping the entire time." Melody began to feel a panic inside of her. She had to get a message to Harley somehow to get them to start charging her suit. "I got some ideas while we were driving about what we can make and how we can use it to our advantage."

"Great, I'm all ears."

Melody was afraid that soon, she would be nothing.

* * *

Emily pulled up to the building in her car. Well, the one she stole. "Congratulations, Supervisor Carter," Fitz spoke through her earpiece. "You are now outside of the Mandarin's secret location."

"Yeah, a huge mansion." She scoffed.

"Doesn't seem so secretive to me either."

"Thanks, Fitz." She spoke with a sincere smile, hoping he could hear her smile in her voice. "And don't worry, we're getting a team for you and Simmons."

"Thank god. I'm tired of being stuck in a lab."

"Talk to you later." Emily spoke through a laugh.

"Good luck, Supervisor."

Emily took out her earpiece, knowing that SHIELD didn't need to keep tabs on what she was about to do. Rhodey was in there. Her daughter and her adoptive father might even be in there. She was going to do anything she had to do to get the people she cared about out of there alive.

* * *

Tony looked through the binoculars they had bought as Melody began to strap on the gloves she had thought of and the two of them made together. "Two guards. Big dogs."

"Well," She spoke with a shrug while turning to look at Tony. "No one said we had to go through the front door."

Tony looked to her with a wide smile on his face. He really did miss this quality time and was glad to have it. Even if they were chasing down a terrorist. At least they were doing it together. "I like your thinking, kid."

They snuck down from the tree they were on without a noise, Tony thanking Melody for her spy work, before making their way to the back of the mansion. Melody looked over to Tony once they got to the gate. "You first."

He rolled his eyes at her before getting his running start to jump over the stone barrier. Melody didn't need a running start with her years as a gymnast and her time as a spy in SHIELD. So, When it was Melody's turn, she flipped over perfectly, causing Tony to scoff at her. "Show off."

"Told you there wouldn't be any guards back here." She spoke as she straightened herself up, but Tony immediately brought her down by the shoulders before pointing her head in the direction of the guards on top of the staircase leading into the garden. "Okay," She corrected. "There wouldn't be _as many_ guards back here."

Tony moved ahead of her, climbing up the stairs with his make shift gun. He swung the grapple hook Melody had made to wrap around one of the guard's legs to pull him down. While the other guard was distracted with his partner on the ground, Tony shot off the gun. It was nothing lethal, but it would hurt like hell and keep them down for a long time.

Another guard came out, but Melody was ready for him, she stuck a taser into his chest before dropping him to the ground. Tony turned around to see how perfectly she had everything handled, giving her an impressed nod. Sure, SHIELD took Melody away from him, but she was blossoming in their care, and he was proud of everything she had become. "Great job." She looked up to him, giving him a proud smile. His approval would always be the best thing to her.

They continued through the rest of the garden, finding more guards at the fountain. "Seriously?" Melody complained while ducking behind one of the bushes just in time not to be seen.

"Use that bomb thing I gave you." Tony spoke as if it was no big deal. Melody shrugged, pulling out the blue ornament before chucking it, having it land right at the feet of the guards. "Excellent throw."

Melody shrugged like it was no big deal. "Different aerodynamics than what I'm used to with knives and stuff, but yeah," She smiled a big smile. "It was a pretty good throw."

Once it went off, Tony came out from the bush, emptying his clip into the left over guard while Melody punched one that came out of nowhere and then used the taseing gloves she had designed. The guard Tony was taking on had fallen into the fountain so when they walked by, Tony threw his extra bomb in the fountain, going off just as he threw his gun into one of the bushes.

"Nice touch." Melody spoke, impressed with him, knowing he needed some praise too.

"I thought so." He told her before they took a deep breath, heading into the mansion.

It was eerie silent and they had used almost all of their weapons. They were going in there with only their wit and strength to protect them, worrying the each other with the safety of the other. They went forward, past the immediate staircase, finding the entire place trashed. There was a woman lying on the ping pong table and beer cans scattered the floor. This immediately didn't feel right. Melody had infiltrated over a dozen places, but she had never seen a terrorist's headquarters look this messy.

"Why is it so hot in here?"

Tony and Melody immediately turned to each other with wide eyes, wondering where that was coming from.

"I told you to put it at sixty-eight."

Tony peaked around the corner to see a woman in a tight, sparkly dress sprawled out on the couch with a man in a suit sitting across from her. Melody immediately noticed the guns sitting on the table before him.

"My fault again." He complained as Tony inched forward, knowing they had one more trick up their sleeve. "Let me tell you something, sweetheart." Melody rolled her eyes at the way he was talking to her. She wished she got to take him out instead of Tony. "I am not your personal – " He didn't get to finish because Tony tased his head with Melody's little invention.

She gave a happy smile as she moved forward, picking up his .45 caliber, checking the magazine before deciding to bring one more along with her. Tony did the same as she did as the girl on the couch was obviously either drunk or stoned out of her mind.

That's when Melody finally recognized the stench lingering in the air. She was surprised they weren't high just from stepping foot in the place. She was gonna go with stoned. Everyone here was probably extremely stoned.

Tony and Melody made their way through a grand door, their guns pointed forward before discarding of the gloves. Around them was decorations of the Mandarin all around. On screens, there were various pictures and videos running by. As they got further into the room they saw what looked like…sets and makeup chairs. Almost like this was a movie.

Tony and Melody shared a weird look before getting to a bed. A lump was under the blanket. Melody tried not to breath, the adrenaline taking over for her. She knew that right when the blanket was taken off, she was going to get trigger happy, but she had to pull herself back. She wasn't a monster. No matter how much Tony wanted to kill him, the same thing was running through his mind.

Tony gave Melody a nod as she moved to the other side of the bed, putting one hand on the cover, ready to turn it over. Tony gave her the one look she needed. She threw the cover off quick, Tony's finger twitching on the trigger as Melody's hands went back to holding the gun. They both stopped, not sure what to do. The Mandarin wasn't lying in the bed. Two innocent girls were.

"Sh." Melody spoke quickly, not wanting to draw any attention or cause a scene. They both looked to each other, not sure what to do when the sound of a toilet flushing interrupted all of them.

Tony and Melody backed up behind the head board of the bed as the girls laid back down as casually as they could after just being held at gun point. "Well," he laughed out while waving the air around him with the laugh still sitting in his throat. "I wouldn't go in there for twenty minutes."

Both Tony and Melody froze. That was the Mandarin's voice, but it was not the Mandarin's voice. He laughed loudly, causing Melody to give him a confused face before lipping: what the fuck?

"Now," he spoke while sorting through the mess on the dresser. "Which one of you is Vanessa?"

"We had to have gotten the wrong place, right?" Tony whispered to her.

Her eyes got wide as she peaked from behind the headboard while "The Mandarin" threw Vanessa a fortune cookie. "If it looks like a duck and quakes like a duck, it's a fucking duck."

"Let me take a look." Melody rolled her eyes, knowing that some things, you would never be able to change.

"Did you know that fortune cookies aren't really Chinese?" Tony gave the man a confused face, just not getting it.

"There's some people back here." One of them mumbled as Tony ducked down again.

"You're right." Tony sighed out while still trying to look back to the Mandarin. "It's a fucking duck."

Tony stood up with his gun pointed out, Melody following his lead as he still rambled on about fortune cookies. "Hey!" Tony called.

He turned around to look to them, his eyes getting wide and his hands immediately going up. "Bloody hell." He cursed. "Bloody hell."

"Don't move." Melody commanded through her teeth.

"I'm not moving." He told Melody with a nod. "You want something? Take it. Although, the guns are all fake because those wankers wouldn't trust me with the real ones."

Melody had to blink at that. "What?"

"Hey," He spoke, moving closer to them. "Do either of you fancy any of the birds?" Melody blinked again. "Hey," He spoke with a bit of a chuckle. "We're in the modern area. Women can be with women."

Melody shut her eyes, taking a deep breath just to keep her cool. "You're not him." Tony spoke while moving his gun back. "The Mandarin," he spoke before cocking his gun back. "The real guy," he pointed the gun to him as Melody took her safety off, really wanting to shoot something at the moment. "Where?!" He began to panic, starting to run away while waving his hands around. "Where's the Mandarin?!" Tony screamed out, just getting closer to him. "Where is he?!"

"Whoa," He spoke, finally finding a chair to sit down. "He's here. He's here." Melody turned her head, sensing there was more to this than they could ever imagine. "But he's not here." They both shook their head. This was the last thing they expected of today. "He's here, but he's not here."

"What do you mean?" Melody asked quickly, the adrenaline still pumping through her and all of this confusion wasn't helping it.

"It's complicated." He spoke with a shrug before getting on a serious face. "Hey, it's complicated."

"Is it?" Melody fought back as he nodded. "Then uncomplicate it."

"Ladies, out," Tony commanded as he followed, making sure they were safe. "Get out of the bed. Get in the bathroom."

Melody turned over to make sure everything was okay when she saw him trying to crawl away. Finally, she got the opportunity to shoot something. She shot the ground right in front of him, causing the girls in the bathroom to scream. "Sit." Melody commanded as Tony got to her side.

He sat in the chair, folding his arms like a perfect child as Melody and Tony looked to him, not even knowing where to start with all of this. "My name is Trevor." He spoke with a shrug. "Trevor Slattery."

They both blinked a couple of times, not knowing what to say to that. The Mandarin's name was Trevor Slattery. "What are you?" Tony asked, his voice wearing with patience. Trevor shook his head, not knowing what to say to that. "What are you? A decoy? You're a double, right?"

Melody nodded, knowing that was the only option that could make sense. "What?" He spoke, almost offended. "An understudy? Absolutely not."

"I'm gonna kill him." Melody spoke before raising her gun up.

"Don't hurt the face!" He immediately screamed, causing her to pull her gun down. She remembered hearing that line from a lot of douchebag actors she slept with in her bad girl phase. "I'm an actor."

"Douchebag." She whispered under her breath.

Tony was completely confused and done with the conversation all at the same time. "You've got a minute to live. Fill it with words."

"It's just a role." He spoke as he shook his head. "The Mandarin." He spoke in the Mandarin voice they were so used to, causing the two to give each other a worried look. "It's not real."

"Then how did you get here, Trevor?" Melody spoke, moving closer to him, causing Trevor to adjust his position on the chair.

"Um," He leaned back slightly. "Well," Melody pushed her gun toward him again, causing him to jump. "I have a little problem with, uh, substances." He spoke quickly, causing her to move the gun further away from him like a reward for talking. "I ended up doing things…there's no two ways about it in the street, that a man shouldn't do."

Melody blinked rapidly, not wanting to hear any more about Trevor Slattery's time as a prostitute. "Next!"

"Then, they approached me about the role. And they knew about the drugs."

"They said they'd get you off them?" Tony assumed.

He turned to them with an excited face with his finger up. "They said they'd get me more!"

Melody brought her gun down instantly, turning to Tony with an annoyed and tired face at everything that was happening in this very second.

"They gave me things." Trevor went on. "They gave me this beautiful palace. They gave me plastic surgery. They gave me things."

Melody turned away from Tony's face at the sound of slight snoring. "Did he just nod off?" Melody asked Tony.

"Hey!" Tony spoke as he kicked his foot.

"Oh!" He woke up instantly, Melody putting her gun up to him again. "And a lovely speedboat. And the thing was that he needed someone to take credit for some 'accidental explosions'."

Melody tuned out as soon as she heard "he". "He?" Melody questioned while looking Trevor right in the eye. "Killian?"

"Killian." He repeated with a smile.

"He created you?" Tony asked.

"He created me." Trevor continued with that goofy smile.

Tony and Melody both brought their guns down while looking to each other. "Custom made terror threat." Melody spoke with a shrug, knowing that Killian was an evil genius.

"Yes!" Trevor explained while standing up to go pour himself a drink while Tony and Melody threw themselves down on the bed, finding themselves completely worn out from this revelation. "His think tank thinked it up." Tony and Melody looked to each other, not sure what to do anymore. The Mandarin wasn't really the Mandarin. The Mandarin was Killian and they had no idea where he was. "The pathology of a serial killer." Trevor announced in his Mandarin voice, but it just faded in the background for them. "The manipulation of Western iconography. Are you ready for another lesson?" That caused them both to look back at him. He sounded just like the threat they were going after for so long and it wasn't him. "Blah, blah, blah." He spoke in his regular voice while offering the two a drink.

Tony turned his down, but Melody grabbed it and downed it. She really could have used a drink after all of that. "Of course it was my performance that brought the Mandarin to life."

Tony looked to him with a slightly angry face. "Your performance? Where people died?"

"No, no." He spoke instantly. "Look around you. Costumes. Green screen." Melody looked up at him, realizing that Trevor didn't totally know what was going on. They were using him to get the blame off of AIM. "Honestly, I wasn't on location for half of this stuff and when I was, movie magic, love."

"I'm sorry," Tony spoke as he stood up to walk towards him. "But I've got a best friend in a coma who might not wake up."

Trevor looked completely confused. "So you're still gonna have to answer for that." Melody told him while looking him up and down. "You're still going down."

They finally noticed that Trevor wasn't looking confused because of what they were saying. It was because he was looking at someone else. Tony swung his arm back, but Savin caught it before hitting him in the face and gently setting him down.

He looked over to Melody as she gave him a hateful face. "Round two?" He offered with a cocky smile.

Melody punched him right in the face as he grabbed her by the wrists, pulling her forward and slamming his head into hers so hard, she was knocked out. He slowly brought her down to lay with her uncle, her head ending up on his chest and his falling on top of her head. Savin looked up at Trevor with a heavy sigh, knowing that they really should get rid of this guy. "Okay, Trevor, what did you tell them?"

He stood there for a moment, thinking. "I didn't tell them anything."

"Nothing?"

He thought again, just to make sure as Savin rolled his eyes. "No."

"You should have pressed the panic button."

Trevor shrugged while picking up his unopened beer. "Well, I panicked but then I handled it."

Right as he opened the beer, they heard footsteps. "Don't get too mad at Trevor, Savin." Savin turned at the sound of one of his bosses, deciding to do what he told him. "He did his part as the bait to get Melody here perfectly. That's when Zeke looked down at the two lying on each other in their unconscious state. "Aw." Savin looked over to one of his masters with a smile. He looked to Melody with a wicked smile, excited that she was finally going to be his. She looked the same as he remembered before leaving to create Extremis with Killian. "How cute."

* * *

Clint felt like this was all getting useless. Like they weren't even trying to heal him anymore. He felt they were just making it worse. He felt tired. He felt weak. It was like they were sucking the life out of him and it wouldn't surprise him if they really were. Sure, Killian was top dog, but you could break some orders for love. He knew he did.

It just made Clint so mad that this little psychopath was in love with Melody and was trying to get him out of the way so Zeke could rush in and try to win her heart. It made him sick to his stomach, actually. The fact that someone could call that love was atrocious to him. Clint did know one thing, though. Melody would never go with him.

That's when something clicked to him. This was why Zeke was keeping him alive. He had him as leverage. Go with Zeke or Clint dies. She would go to him for her boyfriend's safety and he knew it. That's probably what Killian was doing with Pepper as well. If Tony gave over with what Killian wanted, he could have Pepper back. They were the bait in this situation. That's the only reason they were still alive.


	12. The Great Escape

_**This has probably been one of my favorite chapters to write in this story. Some new information gets reveled so I hope you guys enjoy the twist! Remember to review! Enjoy!**_

Melody moaned as she rolled her head. That's when everything clicked back to her again. Savin. Her eyes opened as her head jerked up, throwing all of her hair back as she looked around. She noticed that her wrists and ankles were zip tied to a bed, causing her to roll her eyes. "Seriously?" She tried to tug on her wrists, but stopped knowing there was no way she was going to get out of that. "Seriously?" She complained again. She hated being tied up and it happened way more often than an average woman of her age.

"We had to do that." She looked directly across from her to see Zeke staring at her while playing with his mother's locket. One of the only things that had survived the explosion she was in at Stark Industries. "It was the only way to make sure you wouldn't try to get out."

Melody just stared at him. She was once in love with him. She never thought he would tie her up to a bed spring. "Why are you doing this?" She asked desperately. He opened his mouth, about to answer, but Melody cut him off. "And I don't mean why I'm here because I know why I'm here. I mean why are you working with Killian?"

He sighed as he leaned up against one of the walls. Melody took that time to scan the area. There were two guards. There was a small window and only one door out of the place. "You always knew me so well, Melody."

"I know you well enough to know that you would not go into this willingly."

Zeke shrugged, letting another sigh take over as he moved closer to her. "People change, Melody. You should know that first hand."

"But I'm still me."

"Are you saying I'm not me anymore?"

"I'm saying," She started in a harsh voice. "You've gone completely off the reservation."

Zeke took a deep breath as he continued to stare into her eyes. "You want to go back in time with me?" Melody just continued to glare at him, wanting answers and wanting to know what the hell was happening. "2006, something happened that almost broke me in two." Melody looked away, not wanting to think about it. "My mother was involved with a project at Stark Industries that blew her to bits."

"What does any of this have to do with any of me?" She didn't want to be rude because she loved his mother as if she was her own, but he was really starting to piss her off.

"It doesn't." He spoke with a shrug, causing her to turn her head to the side. "But it has everything to do with your uncle Tony." He gave her a slight smile as she gave him a fearful face. "Or…dad." She gritted her teeth, causing him to smile slightly. "Oh, come on, Melody. I used to know everything about you. You think I'd forget how much Tony meant to you? How you would sometimes wish you were his biological daughter? Or," He began to get closer to her, but Melody was trying to get him out of sight since she finally got an idea on how to get out of these stupid zip ties. "One of the best ones, how you wished he would adopt you?"

Melody turned away from that, knowing he was hitting her with the most sensitive part of her childhood. "Get to the damn point." She spoke with a shaky voice.

"Well," He spoke as he began to turn around as she began working on getting the zip ties cut off by using the shield on her Captain America bracelet. She would usually complain about how sharp it was, but right now she was praising god for it. "Back in 2006, mom was working on a project." When he turned back to her, she immediately stopped what she was doing and looked completely attentive. "A project in bio chem."

She shook her head at Zeke, not understanding where all of this was coming from. "She was a bio chemist who worked for Stark Industries. That doesn't quite surprise me."

"Would you be surprised that Tony was looking at making biological weapons?"

Melody looked around nervously. She didn't know what to do at this moment. She shrugged. "Well, it makes sense. He owns a weapons company." She shut her eyes, knowing she was using the wrong verb tense. "Owned."

Zeke chuckled slightly. "Yeah. _Owned_." He got face to face with her, Melody feeling all the love she once had for him turn into hate. "That doesn't change the fact that what he did in his weapon company was disgusting."

"We didn't know we were dealing under the table!" Melody finally yelled at him. "And that was all your father's doing, anyway. So, if you want to get mad at someone, get mad at him."

Zeke looked to her, still quiet for a moment, but then burst into laughter. "I don't care about dealing under the table." His voice had laughter all in it, making Melody begin to think that he was going crazy. "I'm the one who encouraged my dad to get it started." Melody's mouth dropped. She couldn't believe that this man standing in front of her was once the person she knew and loved. "No. I'm talking about Tony's mad science experiments. The bio tech he was into." Melody looked down at that, knowing exactly what he was talking about. "How a human can absorb energy." Melody had a guilty look on her face as her eyes were downcast. "What?" Zeke barked out, causing her to jump, her eyes drifting back to him.

Melody opened her mouth, knowing he deserved the truth, but not knowing how to tell him. "It's just…that wasn't Tony's mad science experiment." Zeke turned his head to the side, not sure what she was getting at. "It was mine."

* * *

Tony woke up in his own torture chamber, but what he didn't know was that Tony and Melody were back to back with each other, the walls as soundproof as they come, not being able to remotely hear what kind of trouble his niece was getting into. He looked all around, letting out a moan at the stupid zip ties. "Okay." He grumbled in defeat, but then looked forward to see Maya Hanson staring at him with a light smile on her lips.

"It's just like old times, huh?"

Tony sighed as he looked back to his restraints. "Oh, yeah. With zip ties. It was a ball."

Maya sighed sadly. She hated seen Tony like that. They had a real connection. It wasn't love, but she felt something for him. "It wasn't my idea."

"Okay," Tony spoke, thinking back on their night together. Especially the elevator. "You took Killian's card."

"I took his money." She clarified with a bit of a bite in her voice.

"And here you are, thirteen years later in a dungeon."

She shook her head with her lips pursed. "No."

"Yes." He argued back.

"No," She spoke, leaning forward slightly. " _You're_ in a dungeon. I'm free to go." Tony shook his head while looking away from her, he was going to focus all of his energy on getting out of there. "A lot has happened Tony." She spoke, making her way down the stairs to get closer to him. "But I'm close."

"Yeah," he commented hollowly before looking back to her. "Where's my daughter?"

Maya turned her head to the side, realizing something in the relationship between those two had grown a whole lot stronger. "I thought she was your niece."

"Yeah," He spoke with a shrug. "Well…" Tony simply trailed off, not knowing what else to say, knowing she would always be his niece, but he just thought of her so much more.

"Extremis is almost stable." Maya defended as she got only a few feet away from Tony, knowing that if he was going to get his help, she needed to be reasonable with him about what was going on.

"And I'm telling you it isn't!" Tony shouted, causing her to jump, not understanding. She didn't see it like Tony and Melody had seen it. "I saw them on the street. People are going 'bang', they're painting the walls. Maya, you're kidding yourself."

"Then help me fix this." She spoke while shoving the card from Berlin in his face confidently. He didn't understand what she was talking about first, not until she spun the card around and there was a formula on the back of it. He was completely confused at the sight of it, but he connected the dots, finding out what she thought was going on. "Did I do that?"

Her face completely fell as she looked at him, bringing the card down, defeated. "Yes."

"I remember the night. Not the morning." Tony spoke with a shrug. Her face just fell even more. "Is this what you've been chasing around?"

"You don't remember?" She asked again, her voice almost cracking at this hit. This had taken up a majority of her life.

"I can't help you." He told her honestly. He then looked to her like the lost person she was, remembering who he met in Switzerland and who was standing in front of him now. Like Maya, it wasn't love, but it was something. "You used to have moral psychology. You used to have ideals. You wanted to help people. Now look at you." She looked everywhere but Tony's eyes, finding that the hardest truth out of all of this. "I get to wake up every morning with someone who…still has a soul."

* * *

Zeke stood there for a moment, befuddled with shock, just looking at her. That's all he could do. Look at her. He advanced towards her so they were only a few inches apart and his face got darker. Much darker. "What?" He asked in a slow, angry voice.

Melody was frightened of Zeke. This entire time, she hadn't been scared of him once, but now that she knew that he was going after Tony for something she had done, she was left petrified. "I gave my plan to Tony and…" Melody didn't know how he was going to take this news specifically. "Your mom perfected it." Melody found herself looking down, away from Zeke all together. "She was the trial." She finally looked up at him and he was still frozen in that anger. "She volunteered and the place exploded from her trying to hold in all of that energy. I am…" Melody trailed off as she looked down, feeling tears emerging on her eyes. "I am so sorry."

Zeke looked away, some sadness passing over his face, but it didn't last long. His face went back to that demonic darkness. He suddenly grabbed her by the neck and threw her back into the bed frame. She cried out, feeling her head pounding so hard, it felt as if her brain was going to jump out of her skull. "You're going to pay for your sins." Melody cried out even more just when Zeke pulled out his phone, showing Melody live footage of Clint in his room. She had so many emotions running through her. Happiness from seeing him. Fear from what their plan was with him. Anger from knowing that Zeke was keeping him this entire time. "We've been keeping him safe, but I think that's getting boring."

Melody was screaming from fear, anger and above all, pain. "If you touch him, I swear to god – "

"What?" Zeke questioned. "What are you going to do?" He got so close to her, their lips almost touching and he was drooling like a mad dog. "You're chained to a bed...just like our old days."

Melody was fuming as he turned to the men standing behind him. "Bring in Clint Barton so I can kill him!"

With that, Melody had gotten her first hand freed and began to work on the second hand, only praying for enough time before he cut Clint's throat.

* * *

They stood there for a moment, just staring at each other, knowing how much truth was in that statement and all Tony wanted to do was be with his matching soul again. "Get me out of here." He commanded. "Come on."

That flash of the old Maya went away just as quickly as it came. She turned dark again, stepping back, just in time for a new voice to enter the playing field. "You know what my old man used to say to me?" Tony rolled his eyes in the direction of who was coming for him. "One of his favorite of many sayings. 'The early bird gets the worm. The second mouse gets the cheese'."

"You're not still pissed about the Switzerland thing, are you?" Tony asked with his head cocked to the side slightly. "By the way, where's Melody?"

Killian sighed as he looked over to him. "Zeke's got her."

"And where the hell does he fit into this?"

Killian smiled as he leaned against a desk, putting his case up there. "He's one of our brilliant scientists here at AIM. One of the top scientists, actually."

"His parents must be so proud." Tony mused before looking up sarcastically. "Oh, yeah. They're both dead."

"Zeke gets heavy pay, but none of that mattered to him." He began to get closer to Tony. "He only wanted two things. Revenge on you and Melody for himself." He shrugged. "I'll never know why, but…" He began laughing with a shrug. "Kids." Tony's blood only boiled more. Knowing Melody, he knew she was going to tell him everything about his mother's death. He didn't care if Zeke tried to kill him, but he couldn't let him try to kill Melody. That's why they let the whole world believed it was Tony's fault.

"And to answer your question about the whole Switzerland thing, how can I be pissed at you? I'm here to thank you." Tony gave him an annoyed face as he ended up only a few inches from his face. "You gave me the greatest gift anyone has ever given me. Desperation." Tony's glare continued to deepen as he looked at him. He really hated this guy. "If you think back to Switzerland, you said you'd meet on the rooftop, right? Well, for the first…" He took a pause as the thought. "Twenty minutes, I actually thought you'd show up. And the next hour, I considered taking that one step short cut to the lobby."

Tony rolled his eyes, only imagining Melody mumbling her wish of having him actually doing it. It was killing him that he had no idea where she was. So, he decided he was going to have to be the sarcastic asshole for the entire time instead of their back and forth banter. "Honestly, I'm still trying to figure out what happened to the first mouse."

"But as I looked down over that city," Killian continued with an eye roll from Tony. "Nobody knew I was there. No one could see me. Nobody was even looking. I had a thought that would guide me for years to come. An anonymity, Tony." Tony gave him a fake excited face, but nothing was getting to him. "Thanks to you, it's been my mantra ever since, right?" Maya nodded with a bit of a smile on her face, taking Tony by complete shock that she would ever agree to this. "Because the moment you give evil a face – Bin Laden, Gaddafi, the Mandarin – you hand the people a target."

Tony couldn't even look at him as he sat next to his briefcase, finding himself just shaking his head. "You're something else."

He looked back to Tony with a curious face. "You have met him, I assume?"

"Yeah, Sir Lawrence Oblivion."

"I know he's a little over the top sometimes...it's not entirely my fault." He began to struggle with the words to truly explain Trevor. "He has a tend...he's a stage actor. They say his Lear was the toast of Croydon, wherever that is." He sighed, trying to get himself back on track. "Anyway, the point is ever since that big dude with the hammer fell out of the sky, subtlety's kind of had its day. "

"What's next for you in your world?" Tony asked, just wanting to know how to protect the world from Killian's madness.

"Well, I wanted to repay you for the same gift you so graciously imparted to me." He rolled silver balls onto the floor. Something he used in his display to Pepper and Melody. A hologram showed up, showing Pepper glowing as orange as the others in obvious pain. "Desperation." Tony couldn't barely find himself to look. She didn't deserve any of that and he was the reason she had gotten roped into it. "Now, this is live. I'm not sure if you can tell but at this moment the body is trying to decide whether to accept Extremis or just give up," Pepper was screaming and it was hurting Tony more than anything could. "And if it gives up, I have to say the denotation is quite spectacular." Maya then shut her eyes, realizing how awful this was to put someone through. "But until that point, it's really just a lot of pain. We haven't even talked salary yet." Killian moved up to Tony, grabbing his neck and beginning to glow a bright orange. "What kind of perk package are you thinking of?"

"Let him go." Maya demanded suddenly.

Killian shut his eyes at her interruption. "Hold on, hold on." He began to turn his head, not sure what to expect from her. "Maya."

When he was turned around, she was holding an injector just inches from her neck. Killian looked confused, but Tony was worried. "I said let him go!"

"What are you doing?" Killian honestly couldn't wrap his brain around what she was doing or why she was doing it.

"1200ccs." She announced grandly, feeling like she finally had the upper hand in all of this. "A dose half of this size and I'm dead."

Killian turned over to Tony with a deep breath, trying to keep his anger in. "It's times like this my temper is tested somewhat." He turned to her, trying to give her a reasonable face. "Maya, give me the injector."

"If I die Killian, what happens to your soldiers? What happens to your product?"

Killian began to step forward, knowing he had to calm her down. "We're not doing this, okay."

Maya continued to back away, making Killian want to get even closer to her to make sure she didn't do it. "What happens to you? What happens if you go too hot?" She gave him a warning look as Killian continued to give her a devious glare. He looked to Tony, finally deciding that if he had Tony and Melody, he no longer needed Maya. He quickly pulled his gun out and shot her right in the heart.

Maya's mouth dropped and Tony jumped. She looked to Tony, not knowing what to do and Tony didn't know what to say. She dropped to her knees, feeling the pain spread through her before falling on her back, breathing in her last gasps on the cold, hard ground.

"The good news is, a high level position has just been vacated."

Tony looked away from him, finding it so hard to believe he was this far gone from being a human. "You're a maniac."

"No, I'm a visionary." Tony laughed slightly as Killian walked away. The worst thing was that he didn't understand just how far gone he had become. "But I do own a maniac, and he takes the stage tonight." He walked out of the room, leaving Tony's mind to run through what just happened, wishing Melody was somewhere safe in this place.

* * *

Zeke slammed through Clint's door, causing him to jump. "What the hell?" He mumbled just as Zeke reached him. He quickly undid his restraints, giving Clint an idea. He slammed Zeke's head onto the metal frame of his bed, sending him right to the ground. "You crazy son of a bitch." Clint mumbled, finding himself finally standing after days strapped down to that bed. It felt weird, but with all this rest he had been getting lately, he felt a new kind of powerful. Recharged in a sense.

The guards grabbed Clint's arms, but he kicked one, getting one of his arms free and attacked the other with his free hand. He tried to run out, but Zeke got up, grabbing him and throwing him into the wall. He was done with Melody. He didn't have to keep him safe or unharmed anymore. He could kill him if he pleased.

He picked Clint up by the collar of his shirt, though. He didn't want to kill him here. He wanted revenge on Melody. He wanted to kill him right in front of her as she watched. He wanted to see her heart tear into pieces and the only way he could do that was by executing Clint very publically in front of her.

Clint sensed a change in the air as well when Zeke threw him to his guards. Something was going down. He didn't know what it was, but Zeke wasn't letting him go for no reason. As the guards dragged him forward and out the door, he began to go through a list of things that could be happen. And that's when it hit him. Melody was here.

* * *

Emily had made it into the building, noticing that all the guards on the way in had already been taken out for her. The more she walked into the mansion, the more she noticed the high alert. She got through the main house and into the actual levels. The levels where people could work. That's where most of the security was.

She took out as many guards as possibly by silently fighting some, knocking them out or even taseing them. That's when she saw Aldrich Killian making his way into a room. She looked up at the ceiling, knowing she could hide up there and hear everything they were saying. She climbed up just in time for none of the other guards to see or hear her.

It was the room where they were keeping Rhodey and his suit, Emily climbing back a little so she could see. When she saw that red, white and blue suit, her hand went to her mouth, immediately not knowing what to do. "Good afternoon, gentlemen." Killian announced as he took off his jacket and the men immediately stopped working. He walked right up to the suit, placing his hands on it. "Hello, Colonel. Step aside." His hands began glowing orange as he planned to melt through the armor. "We'll get you out of there, don't worry."

"Rhodey." Emily whispered. She didn't know what to do in that moment. She had to get him out of there, but she honestly had no idea how.

"You'll damage the armor." Savin warned as Emily tucked herself even tighter into the ceiling.

"Yes, I will, but you can fix it, right?" Savin gave him an impossible look, but Killian simply ignored it. "I'm going to take the suit up to base camp, and I want Potts with me."

Emily put a hand over her mouth. If they had Pepper, they had Clint too. "She's still in Phase 2."

Killian gave him an annoyed look that just made Emily's blood boil. "You're not going deaf, are ya?" Emily could hear Rhodey's whimpers of pain and she knew what she had to do. She had to attack, but just wait for the proper time to do it.

* * *

Melody had gotten both of her zip ties cut and was working on her leg, almost half way done with it when the door burst open, causing her to hop back to where she was standing, holding on to what was left of them.

Zeke was the one who had pushed the door in, the guards holding Clint coming in after him. Melody knew she had to put on a good show. She had done this dozens of times for SHIELD. "You crazy son of a bitch." She yelled out while her fake struggling got intense. The guards threw Clint down to the ground, sending him on his knees right in front of Melody.

Now, when you live with someone and have been in a relationship for as long as these two have, you develop these special mind reading powers. You can just look at each other and know what the other is going to do or say. Clint and Melody were really good at this gift. They spent almost all of their time together from home to work, they barely got any time apart. Now, they were both thanking god for that gift. Clint took one look at her, knowing she was almost free and Melody knew that he was recharged and ready to get into a fight.

"Look away, Melody." Zeke advised as he stood behind Clint. "You don't want to see this."

Melody's blood was boiling, but all of that anger was focusing on breaking out of her last zip tie. Zeke's knife went towards Clint's neck, but he laughed his head forward, his teeth sinking into his arm just as Melody broke out, focusing on the landing.

She slid on her knees, gliding her right in front of Clint where she took Zeke's knife and stabbed it into his side. While his guards were distracted with that, Clint pulled out one of their guns and started shooting. Melody yanked her knife out of his body as he staggered back and sent the knife into one of the guards, causing them to drop instantly.

They continued like this until all the guards were on the floor, but when Melody looked over to where Zeke was, there was a trail of blood and she followed it to see him hurrying out the door. She got one of the guns from the guards and shot off a bullet, barely missing him as he got out of the room. "Melody!" Clint yelled as she took off out the door, determined to kill this man.

She shot like a mad woman, hitting him a couple of times, but missing him most as he hurried down the hallway. As she shot off a bullet, Clint grabbed her arms, pushing her into a wall. "What the hell was that?" She yelled at him.

"You're gonna waste your energy on this coward?"

Melody looked down the hall, knowing he was right, but she really wanted blood. All of that could wait though. She needed this moment with him.

She wrapped her arms around his neck and breathed him in. "I am so sorry."

"For what?" He chuckled out.

"For nor looking for you."

Clint shook his head as he pulled away from her to look her right in the face. "But you still found me."

She smiled up at him as he moved a strand of hair out of her face. "I always will."

He shook his head, missing her so much. Nothing could beat this moment. "I love you."

"I love you." She spoke quickly before they fell into each other's lips, taking a moment just to be Clint and Melody before they became Hawkeye and Dark Violet again.

* * *

The room was deathly quiet until suddenly, a watch started beeping. Tony's eyes grew wide, almost forgetting about it. One of the guards watching him picked it up and began to study it. "Careful there," Tony advised once the man started shaking it. "It's limited edition."

"Hey," Tony spoke as the other guard stood up. "What's the millage count between Tennessee and Miami?"

"Eight hundred thirty-two miles." He spoke almost instantly, causing an impressed nod from Tony, but right now, he was just waiting. The first guard was still messing with the watch, causing a nose wrinkle from the second guard. "Can you stop that?"

"You break it, you bought it!"

The man looked Tony in the eye, dropping it and stomping on it. "I think I bought it."

"Okay," He spoke in a disapproved voice. "That wasn't mine to give away. That belonged to my friend's sister, and that's why I'm gonna kill you first."

The two men laughed as they looked back to Tony. "What are you going to do to me?"

"You'll see." He simply spoke.

"You're zip tied to a bed."

"This!" Tony spoke with the wave of his hands, but nothing happened. They continued to stare at him, just nodding. "That!" He did it again, but nothing else happened. The guard with the long hair put his hands up in a fake surrender as Tony continued to sit there. The suits should have been there by now.

* * *

Killian looked to Rhodey with his fiery eyes. "Are you coming out now?" He taunted.

"Do not open." Rhodey told the suit. "Do not open." He knew there was no stopping it though. "Alright, let's go."

With that, Emily dropped down from her hiding place, attacking the first guards she saw and all the other after that as Rhodey drop kicked Savin. Before they could do anything else, Killian breathed fire in Rhodey's direction, but he jumped out of the way. That was enough to send everyone into the room into silence. Even Killian's minions. "You breathe…fire?" Rhodey asked in disbelief.

Euphoria passed over Killian's face just as Savin pushed Rhodey into a wall. Emily immediately ran to him, both Killian and Savin deciding not to do anything about it. Just get the suit and get out, knowing they had been compromised.

Emily straightened Rhodey up, looking him in the eyes. "How did you find me?" Rhodey asked.

Emily looked to him like he was an idiot. "I'm the supervisor of SHIELD." Rhodey shrugged in agreement until she hit him in the back of the head. He looked to her confused as she shoved a finger into his chest. "And don't you ever, ever tell me to stay back _ever_ again!"

"Okay!" Rhodey yelled while throwing his hands up in defense. "Can we get out of here now?" Emily continued to give him an annoyed look, but stood up and helped him up. "Thank you!"

* * *

"Trust me, you're gonna be in a puddle of blood on the ground in in five, four, three," Tony looked away, not wanting to look stupid again. "Come on!" He looked back to the guards. "Two!"

The guard with the buzz cut turned to the other with a sigh. "How did we get this shift?"

"Alright," Tony spoke with a slight sigh. "I'm gonna give you two a chance to escape. Put down your weapons and tie yourselves to those chairs and I'll let you live." They both sighed, completely annoyed with him. "In five, four," He flicked his wrists at them again. "Bang!"

"Wow." The one with a pony tail commented.

"You should be gone right now." Tony spoke with a shrug. "You should already be gone."

"I am just beyond terrified." The guard continued.

"Here it comes." Tony looked around nervously. "Three, four – "

"Shut up." The guard spoke with an annoyed shrug.

"Five, four, three, two, one!"

By the time he got down with quickly counting, the hand to his Iron Man suit came out and punched the guard with a pony tail in the face. It then attached to Tony's arm as he gave the other guard a winning smile. "Told ya." With that, he blasted him, causing the bed he was tied to, to fall back as well. Slowly, but surely, all of his pieces began to attach back to each other.

* * *

Clint pulled the magazines out of the dead and passed out guards as Melody continued to walk around, finding anything of use. "We need to find Tony." She spoke urgently.

"And we will!" Clint defended, standing up to put his hands on her shoulders. "It's not like he's just gonna come crashing through the wall and – "

And with that, Tony literally crashed through the wall with his full Iron Man suit on and Melody screamed as Clint fell to the floor from shock. He laid on the ground for a second, finally noticing them. "Oh, hey."

Melody rolled her eyes, standing up to join him, firing off a few shots to the guards in his room. Clint looked at those two while taking a deep sigh. "Why do I even bother?"

He stood up, hurrying to join the fight back in Tony's room, but right when he got there, the guard with the pony tail threw his hands up in defense before leaning down to put his gun on the ground. "Honestly, I hate working here, they are so weird." Melody gave him a little smile and wave before he ran off.

Tony turned to Melody, lifting the mask off of his face. "Oh, my god." He wrapped her into a tight hug as he breathed her in. "Are you okay? I was so worried about you."

"I'm fine." She spoke quickly as she shook her head.

That's when Tony saw Clint. He pulled him in, giving him a quick kiss on the cheek as Clint let out a calm sigh from the comfort he felt in that hug. "Are you okay? Did they do anything to you?"

He pulled away from him as Clint shook his head. "They had me tied up for a couple of days, but I'm fine." Tony's blood began to boil at that statement.

"Melody!" Melody turned around to see her mom and Rhodey running into the room.

"Melly Kelly!" Rhodey yelled.

"Mom!" Melody ran to Emily quickly, wrapping her arms tightly around her body.

"Are you okay?" Her mom asked while stroking her head lightly, just wanting her to feel safe again.

Rhodey hugged Tony in the suit before reaching over to hug Clint. When they pulled away, Rhodey put his hands on his face, studying him all over. "You good?" Clint nodded while letting out an exhausted sigh as Tony clapped him on the back.

"Clint." Emily spoke as she moved forward and Clint gave her a big hug as Melody moved over to Rhodey.

"Okay," Tony spoke as all the hugs ceased and there were just smiles and shoulder touches left. "We've got everyone that's here back, now we need to find Pepper and get her back."

Everyone nodded eagerly while turning around and heading for the door. They may not have been the Avengers, but together, they were something.

 _ **I hope you guys liked the little family moments in this chapter and that twist about Zeke's mom! See y'all next time!**_


	13. The Build Up

_**So this story is ending up being a lot longer than my other Melody stories. After this chapter, I have two more planned and then this story will be done. Remember to review and I hope y'all enjoy!**_

The five of them walked out and into the halls together. Alarms were going off, but the place was completely deserted. It was eerie walking down those hallways because a lot of Killian's minions were killed as his most trusted ones fled with him. It disgusted them how disposable Killian saw people.

Once they made it outside the compound, they all looked up at the sound of something shooting off. That's when they saw the Iron Patriot suit skyrocketing into the air. They all stood there blank faced, not sure what to do. "Rhodey, please tell me that was you in the suit and the one standing right here is a decoy or double."

"I wish." Rhodey scoffed as he continued to look up.

"Alright," Melody spoke, trying to sound reasonable, trying not to make this problem seem bigger than it was. "Main house." Melody shared a tired look with Tony. "There's something everyone needs to see."

Tony rolled his eyes, understanding what she was getting at as she grabbed Clint's hand, pulling him along. "What's more important than getting out of here?" Clint complained.

"You'll see." She spoke in a bland voice, really wishing she was making this stuff up

They walked through the house carefully with weapons out and available just in case any of the guards stuck around. That's when a few guys came out and stopped a ping pong game being played by a few of the girls too stoned to realize they had to leave the house. Tony then leaned down and picked up a spare paddle before looking to the rest of them, Melody giving him the most confused face out of them all. "I am the only one in a suit of armor so they can shoot at me all they want." He poked his head around the corner with the paddle out. "What's this? I had winners."

The guards immediately began shooting off bullets as Clint and Melody came out from behind his suit to shoot a the guards and duck back without getting hurt, leaving the rest for Rhodey and Emily. With the distraction of Clint and Melody, they slid out to where the guards were, delivering the fatal shots as Trevor woke up, immediately drinking his beer right when his eyes opened.

After his sip of beer, Trevor looked over to Tony in the suit and Melody stalking behind him as the others went straight to him, not knowing what Tony and Melody now know. "What have you come as?"

"You make a move," Rhodey threatened as Clint pushed his chair down with his foot and Emily put her gun right to his head, just twitching to pull the trigger. "I break your face."

"I never thought people had been hurt." Clint blinked a couple of times, kind of cursing Melody for picking up on her little thing. Rhodey and Emily simply just looked to each other just by the sound of his voice. "They lied to me."

Clint pulled his gun away from his head and turned to look over at Tony and Melody who were just standing behind them calmly. " _This_ is the Mandarin?"

"I know," Melody spoke with a shrug as Clint couldn't stop staring her, really missing her sarcastic attitude she brought so well. She shook her head as her arms folded, just staring at Trevor sadly. "It's embarrassing."

"Hi," Trevor spoke, causing Clint to look right back to him. "I'm Trevor – " He put his hand out to shake theirs but Emily immediately slapped it away. "Slattery." He finished, obviously scared by her. "I know I'm a bit shorter in person, I'm a bit small, everyone says that." Clint sighed as he brought his foot down, obviously not even wanting to mess with him as he walked back to Melody, wrapping an arm around her as she looked up at him with a happy smile. This was something she most definitely missed. "But, uh, if you're here to arrest me, there are some people that I'd like to rat on."

"Here's how it works, Meryl Streep," Tony spoke as he moved closer to them as Clint and Melody did the same. "You tell him where Pepper is and they'll stop doing it."

When Clint left, Emily and Rhodey's weapons only got closer to his head. And right now, Trevor was staring right into Emily's pistol. "Doing what?" Rhodey went forward, remembering one little thing that would always get Melody to come clean when she was little. He pulled on his earlobe getting Trevor to scream out in pain. "Okay, I get it." Rhodey gave him an annoyed look as Emily simply rolled her eyes at him. "I don't know about any Pepper, but I know about the plan."

"Spill." Emily spoke simply.

"Do you know what they did to my suit?" Rhodey pushed.

Trevor just looked at him for a moment, not understanding what he was talking about at all. "What? No." Rhodey rolled his eyes and took his gun away from him, but Emily just refused to back down. "I do know it's happening off the coast and I know it has to do with a big boat. I can take you there." His eyes were drifting to the TV behind Rhodey and Emily, though. That's when a goal was made. "Olay!" Both Rhodey and Emily jumped at his sudden outburst, causing them to put their guns closer to his head. "Olay! Olay! Olay! Olay!"

"Melody, Tony," Emily talked as she let out an annoyed sigh. "I swear to god, I'm gonna blow his face off."

"Oh!" Trevor spoke. "This next bit might include the Vice President as well." Melody's mouth dropped as she moved out of Clint's arm and closer to Trevor. "Was that important?"

"Yeah." Melody spoke obviously.

"Somewhat." Rhodey included.

"A little bit." Tony scoffed from the back as Clint and Emily just shook their heads at how incompetent this man was.

Emily finally backed up for the five of them to have a small meeting. "So?" Tony spoke as they created a small huddle.

"He's barmy, that's for sure."

Tony just gave her a confused face. "Again with the British slang."

Melody rolled her eyes as she turned to look over at Tony. "It means mad, psychotic, insane – "

"Okay," Rhodey spoke as he shook his head and put a hand in front of Melody. "Enough synonyms. What are we going to do? We don't have any transport."

That's when a light clicked in Melody's head. "Maybe we do." She moved out of the crowd to stand right in front of Trevor with her arms crossed, staring at him curiously. "Trevor," He made eye contact with her, his gaze slightly scared about what they were going to do to him next. "Didn't you say something about a lovely speedboat?"

* * *

The group hurried out of the house and got to the "lovely speed boat", getting everyone in as quickly as possible and getting it started. Once they were going, they all had a moment to just take a breath. "Melody," Tony spoke, finally realizing something after Clint put his arm around her and her head fell to his shoulder. "Where's your suit?"

Melody picked her head up with a slight panic on her face. Everyone turned back to her, wanting to know the answer to the exact same question. "What?" She asked, her voice slightly high, causing everyone to exchange looks with each other. She had become a great liar, but she just couldn't lie to Tony, especially since she knew he was going to kill her when he found out.

Tony began to move forward, his face getting darker. "Melody Buchanan Barnes," Melody began to look up, avoiding eye contact as she scooted back slightly. "Where is your suit? It should have gotten to you the same time it got to me."

Melody looked to him as she played with her hands. "Well," Her voice was even higher than before. "You see," She put a hand on his shoulder as his eyes squinted, knowing just by her behavior that he was about to get steam-coming-out-of-his-ears mad at her. "I love you."

"Okay." He spoke with a nod, wishing she would just get to the point.

"And I wanted you to be safe and prepared for a fight."

"Next!" His voice was raised even more causing her to jump.

"So, I called Jarvis and Harley and told them not to charge my suit." Tony's face twisted to so much anger, he thought he was going to explode and Melody just continued to step back as he stepped forward. "Just charge yours so you would be ready. And I'm sorry." She bumped into the boat's railing, causing her to jump, but she turned right back to Tony, knowing that was her real threat compared to falling out of the boat. Falling out of the boat might have actually been a lifeline. "I love you."

Tony just looked at her for a moment, knowing she meant well with the gesture, but he just couldn't deal with her stupidity right now. "You could have gotten yourself killed!"

"I know." She defended with a slight whine. "But I just wanted you to be safe and this was the only way I could make that happen." Tony's face softened a bit, hearing the distress and sincerity in her voice. "I know it was dumb and I won't make a mistake like that ever again. I promise."

Tony just looked at her. He was mad as hell, but they didn't have time to put this petty argument in front of them, but they most definitely would talk about it later. "You're grounded." He spoke instantly.

"I don't live with you." She argued, causing him to roll his eyes.

"Then we are having a conversation later that you are not going to enjoy!" She let out a heavy sigh as she rolled her eyes, but she just knew this was coming. "And we're calling Harley and he is charging that suit right now."

"Fine by me." Melody spoke, throwing her hands in defeat, knowing that she really didn't want to fight Zeke and Killian blind. Especially with all the information she had just given Zeke. And she still hadn't told Tony about it "Tony," He looked back to her while running his hands through his hair, knowing she was making his hair turn grey. "Zeke knows about what happened with his mother." Tony's face got serious quickly at this knowledge, knowing his little girl was in so much more danger than he originally thought. "I told him."

He looked his niece right in the eye as everyone else looked back and forth between the two. "What really happened to his mother?" Clint asked while looking to Melody. He had expected her to tell him the whole truth whenever she told him, but this was a Tony and Mel secret. That thing was staying under lock and key until they wanted it to.

"I killed her." Melody spoke instantly, the guilt lingering in her voice.

"You did not kill her." Tony defended quickly. "She volunteered."

"It was your experiment." Clint spoke in a trance like voice, finally piecing it together.

"And she saw great potential in Melody and her experiment." Tony spoke while looking to Melody. She just looked so small at the moment. He needed her to be the big, strong, bubbly Mel, but he knew she needed a break from all that. He did too. That was the best part about their little trip.

"So," Emily spoke from the driver's seat of the boat. "Zeke is going to be going after Melody?"

"I can handle myself." Melody spoke with an eye roll.

"But if we know who he's going to go after," Rhodey spoke, thinking back on his military training. "We can take him down a lot quicker."

Melody nodded to him with a slight smile, realizing for the first time that all of them together weren't out there trying to protect her or anything. They were going to be out there, working on the job. As equals. She turned to Tony with a smile, knowing his equality as his battle buddy was a long time coming, but she was relieved the day was finally here.

"Well," Tony spoke, tearing them out of their moment for Tony to look down at the computer Melody had hijacked. She went back to it, taking the seat in front of it as everyone else stood behind her to look at it. "If he's right about the location, we're twenty minutes from where Pepper is."

"But we also have to figure out this vice president thing." Rhodey spoke as he looked back and forth at all of them.

Tony nodded as he looked down at a phone. "I wonder who I'm calling right now." Melody rolled her eyes as she shut the computer to look at Tony, knowing a sarcastic comment was coming. Clint walked to Emily controlling the boat as Melody got up to look off the side of it, but Rhodey just kept giving Tony an annoyed glare. "That would be the vice president."

They all waited as they heard the ringing until finally, "Hello?" broke through on their end.

"Sir, this is Tony Stark." Melody rolled her eyes at how direct he was.

"Just gonna go ahead and jump the bullet aren't we?" She spoke as she moved over to the phone. "And Melody Barnes."

"Well," he almost sang out. "Welcome back to the land of living, you two."

"We believe you're about to be drawn into the Mandarin campaign." Melody spoke as she got close to the phone. "And we need to get you somewhere safe as soon as possible."

"Ms. Barnes," He spoke with a slightly annoyed sigh. "Mr. Stark, I'm about to eat honey roast ham surrounded by the agency's finest, and the President is safe on Air Force One with Colonel Rhodes." Melody rolled her eyes at him. Of course he wasn't going to listen to her. "I think we're good here."

"Sir," Rhodey spoke, causing the Vice President to go stiff. "This is Colonel Rhodes." Melody gave him a grateful stare and he nodded, knowing enough to know that she got turned down a lot just because of her name. "They're using the Iron Patriot as a Trojan horse; they're gonna take out the president somehow. We have to immediately alert that plane."

"Okay, I'm on it." He spoke instantly. "I'll have security lock it down. If need be, they can have F22s in the air in 30 seconds. Thank you, Colonel."

Rhodey looked around, knowing this was going to be a long sign off. As the most complicated family in the world, they all had to have different last names as well. "Rhodes, Stark, Barnes, Barton and Carter out."

The Vice President shook his head, knowing that was a long sign off before walking back to his family. What they all didn't know was that he was already pulled in on the Mandarin campaign and all it took was the promise of making his daughter better. Nothing else mattered.

* * *

Melody was in the underground part of the speed boat, making herself a cup of coffee after not have caffeine for days. Clint took a deep sigh as he walked down the stairs. When she looked up at him, she gave him a smile before looking back down to her cup. "Hey, baby."

Clint stopped once he got to the bottom step, just looking at her, trying to decide how to do this. "What the hell?" He finally spoke, his shoulders shrugging from his hands inside of his pockets.

Melody looked to him with a crinkled brow, not understanding what he was talking about. "What's going on?" She asked with a bit of a smile on her face, hoping he was just joking.

"Why did you do that?" He asked with another shrug, beginning to get closer to her. "Why the hell would you let his suit charge and not yours?"

"Okay," She spoke with a smile, putting her cup down and moving toward him so she could put her hands on his shoulders. "I get what this is about."

"Do you?!" He yelled. Melody looked to him, her face getting serious, knowing he had never yelled at her. "Melody," He spoke, finally taking his hands out of his pockets, not sure if there even was a polite way to talk about this. "I am fucking pissed at you."

"What the hell did I do?!" She asked completely defensive, not understanding what the hell was going on.

"You did the shit you always do, Mel." He began to laugh as he got closer to her. "You go in with no backup plan. You just make rash decisions with no way to get out of a tough situation. You know that's gonna get you killed, right?!"

"I was doing something that was right!"

"You were doing something stupid!"

"Why the hell do you even care?!" They were screaming at each other now, making everyone upstairs very uncomfortable since those screams were very audible.

"Because I can't have you getting hurt!"

"I can take care of myself!"

"You think I don't know that?!" Melody was getting madder, feeling like this argument was never going to get anywhere. Like they were yelling at each other for no reason. "But I'm supposed to protect you." That was the first time since this conversation started that they were talking at a normal volume. "And I couldn't." Melody just looked at him, not sure what to do or say. He felt guilty and even though he knew she didn't blame him, he couldn't help feeling this way. "And, for that, I feel…"

"Culpable?" She inferred for him.

He looked up at her with a smile on his face, knowing there was no way he could stay mad at her. Not when he had her back completely unharmed. "Yeah, you walking thesaurus."

She hit his chest with a smile as he pulled her in by the waist for a passionate kiss. When they pulled apart, Clint just felt that hole in his pocket where the engagement ring was just grow deeper. "I'm glad you're safe, my little damsel in distress."

"Oh." Clint laughed out as he leaned in for a little kiss, making Melody's eyes close in complete content. "You're funny."

"I am." She agreed with a happy smile. She looked into his eyes, knowing this was going to be one of their best moments as a couple. "I love you."

"I love you too." He spoke as he squeezed her a little tighter. "And the five of us are gonna get Pepper back together and we're gonna go home."

Melody laughed a little bit as she shook her head, looking into his eyes seriously, knowing he was just as damaged as she was from this experience. "Do we even know where home is anymore?"

Clint moved back a strand of her hair, not knowing what to tell her, just knowing there was only one thing he could say to her. "My home is wherever you are." And with that, she fell into his chest for another hug, knowing just how right he was. Her home was wherever he was.

* * *

So, the heroes saved citizens from Air Force One, but missed the president and destroyed the one Iron Man suit they had, but Tony had something better up his sleeve. But none of that could compare to what the one thing they were trying to save was going through.

Pepper was falling asleep, still strung up like they had her in the house in Miami, feeling like there was no way out of this. Like she was just going to die here. She could feel the Extremis sensation running through her body again, causing her to jolt awake. Zeke was putting the serum into her IV as Killian was looking up at her with a shy smile. "Hi."

Pepper sighed as she shook her head at the two. "If you think they're going to help you, I know my boyfriend and I know my kid, and I know they won't."

Zeke laughed a little at the fact that she had called Melody her kid. Wasn't that all she ever wanted? Too bad it was all about to be taken from her. Killian looked up at her shyly, giving her a bit of a smile, but she just wanted to punch it off of his face. "Having you here is not just to motivate Tony Stark; it's actually more embarrassing than that." She turned her head to the side, hardly being able to believe what he was really doing with her. "You're here as my, um – "

"Trophy." She spoke with the shake of the head, hating all of this.

Just then, a suit came crashing down near them. Pepper felt a little bit of hope, knowing that paint job anywhere. It was Rhodey. He walked right up to them, but this all didn't feel right to her. Rhodey wouldn't just show up in the open like that and Killian seemed way too pleased. "Good evening, sir." The suit opened and threw out President Ellis. Pepper gasped, not knowing what to do and the President obviously didn't know what to do as well. Killian gave him a sarcastic salute as Zeke stepped closer to the President, ready to have some fun with him. "Welcome aboard, Mr. President."

Zeke went forward, pulling the President up with a yank as Pepper had to look away from all the distress she felt in that moment. Zeke gave her one last smile as he pulled the President another way and Killian turned to look over at Pepper before following. "Impressive, huh?"

She scoffed in a disgusted way before throwing her head up, just wishing she could get out of here. Wishing for Tony to get her out of there.

Killian led them to the upper portions of their space, showing off the view they had. "You ever heard of an elephant graveyard? Well, two years ago, the elephant in the room was this ship."

The President stood there for a moment, taking it all in. "This is the Roxxon Norco."

"Of course you remember when she spilled a million gallons of crude off of Pensacola." Zeke spoke as he looked over to the President with a bit of a smile, finding leaving all of his emotions at the door was so much easier than anything he had ever done before. And now, with what he knew, he found it even easier to just leave those emotions. "Thanks to you, not one fat cat saw a day in court.

President Ellis looked back and forth at the two, not sure what to do. "What do you want from me?"

"Uh, nothing, sir." Killian spoke blandly.

"We just needed a reason to kill you that would play well on TV." Zeke spoke with a slight shrug.

"You see, I've moved on. I've found myself a new political patron, and at this time tomorrow, he'll have your job."

Zeke gave one of the minions a death glare before growling out the words, "String him up." Even the minions saw what was going on with Zeke and they knew that this whole thing was going to boil down to something awful at the end.

 _ **What do you think this new Zeke is going to cause in the final showdown? Would love to hear your thoughts. As usual, see you guys soon for the last two chapters and hope you're enjoying reading this story as much as I enjoy writing it.**_


	14. Christmas Day

The group made their way to the secret base, climbing up the ladder and towards the part where the real action was going on. Each of them had guns in their hands as they inched forward, being careful not to be spotted by anyone. "You're not gonna freak out on us, right, Tony? Mel?"

Melody rolled her eyes at Rhodey's comment as Tony simply just shrugged, knowing he had a point. "I hope not."

There was canned oil all around them as they jumped up to get on the upper levels, realizing it was getting even harder to go by without being seen. They finally found a large crate to hide behind, Rhodey peeking out to see what was going on.

In front of him was a man with a camera angled up, pointing at the President dressed up in the Iron Patriot suit, his head downcast, looking at his fate. "Oh my god." Rhodey hurried back behind the crate, Emily immediately giving him a worried look. "He's strung up over the oil tank." Tony looked up from the caboose of the line with a worried face.

"They're gonna light him up." Emily concluded.

"Viking funeral." Clint spoke, looking right at her.

Melody shook her head at how these people just thought of something this destructive. "A public execution."

"Yeah, death by oil." Tony spoke, causing them all to look over at him, knowing this was going to be the most violent televised death in the history of America.

Melody took a deep sigh as she put her head against the cold, metal crate, finding it slightly relaxing. It was the only thing keeping her from having a panic attack. Clint put a hand on her arm, looking at her intently, wondering if she should just sit this one out. "You okay?"

Her eyes opened, a thinking face on. "Actually," She looked over to him, Clint knowing that face immediately. "I think I have an idea."

Melody immediately took off in the direction of the stairs to get to the upper levels where they were keeping the President as everyone took off after her, mostly in fear of her life. And with how fast she got them all running, they weren't seen by any of the minions.

Once they finally got to the upper levels, Clint took a deep sigh. "Melody, babe, remember what we talked about earlier?"

Melody shrugged without turning to look at him. "You weren't gonna do it anyway and we'd still be behind that crate."

Rhodey shrugged, looking back to Clint briefly with all of their guns out. "She's got a point."

"Thanks, Rhodes." That's when she turned behind her to look at her uncle, rolling her eyes slightly, realizing how little training he had in that moment. "Is your gun up?" She asked with the annoyance lingering in her voice, wondering how the hell he didn't realize why she made sure his suit was going to be the only one that was going to make it.

Right after she said something, he picked the gun up, obviously not comfortable with them or in a proper position, and she didn't blame him. With the Iron Man suit, he had no need for holding a gun anymore. He was going to be a little rusty. "Yup, what do I do?"

"Stay on my six." Rhodey commanded from the front of the line. "Cover high."

Melody turned to look at him for a moment as they continued to move forward. "Don't shoot me in the back."

Tony immediately turned around, watching for what was behind them. "Six, high, back." He mumbled. "I got it."

Right as Rhodey was about to continue walking forward, Emily saw a sniper right above them. She immediately grabbed his shoulders, pulling him back as Melody, Clint and Tony shot at the sniper, looking for cover.

The finally found a spot by the machines around, Clint and Melody immediately checking each other for any wounds. "You see that?" Tony asked just as Clint and Melody finished their inspection. "Nailed it."

Melody immediately turned to look at him, surprised they were still in their alignment. "Yeah, you really killed the glass."

"I was aiming for the bulb." He spoke obviously with the shake of the head. "You can't hit a bulb at this distance."

Her eyebrows raised at that, causing her to get up slightly, aim and hit the light bulb in a matter of seconds before ducking back down, giving Tony an obvious look. He made a face at her, making her roll her eyes as he began to open up his gun. "Can you admit that I'm better than you at something for once in your life?"

"I'm out." He spoke, ignoring her, causing her to immediately roll her eyes, but she was happy that he was back to the old Tony. He peaked over Melody and Clint to look at Emily and Rhodey. "You got an extra magazine?"

"They're not universal, Tony." Emily spoke obviously with a slight eye roll.

"I know what I'm doing." He told her in an annoyed voice.

"That's debatable." She spoke quickly, causing Tony to give her a straight face of annoyance.

"I make this stuff." He told her as Melody and Clint gave each other a tired look. How were they the only two acting like adults right now? "Give me another one."

She rolled her eyes as she and Rhodey went through the magazines they had. "We don't have one that fits that gun." Rhodey spoke for her.

"Oh, come on," He spoke completely annoyed. "You and your girlfriend have like five _each_."

Melody shuddered at those words. "I'm not against it." She spoke, leaning over Clint to look at the two. "But I just need some time getting used to that terminology about each other."

"Alright, here's what I'm gonna do." Tony spoke, causing them all to turn to look at him. "I'm gonna spot."

He got up quickly, turning his torso around and immediately came right back down. "What did you see?" Clint asked.

"Too fast." He reported instantly. "Nothing."

They all rolled their eyes as Melody hit him on the arm. "Tony!"

"Alright." He spoke, sitting up again, actually watching this time before ducking back down to the rest of the group. "Three guys, one girl, all armed."

They all sighed, knowing these people had Extremis running through their veins, meaning this fight was going to be nearly impossible. "I would kill for some armor right now." Rhodey cursed.

"Yeah." Tony agreed. "We need backup."

"Yeah," Emily agreed with a slight eye roll. "Much."

"You know what…" Tony trailed off, looking to the sky with a slight smile.

They all looked to the direction he was staring in, seeing something that looked like a very bright star, but it was just too close to be a star. Then, it broke into two. That's when it all clicked to them. "Is that…" Clint spoke, not even finding himself able to finish the sentence from shock.

"Yup." Tony spoke, smiling like a proud parent.

A smile grew on Melody's lips, realizing Tony had missed her the whole time, considering the fact that this was her original idea. "The House Party Protocol."

Tony looked over to his niece, knowing that even if they died today from all of this, he would die the luckiest man in the world with Melody by his side. "Just for you." He wrapped his arm around her as she leaned in slightly to appreciate a family moment in this chaos. "Merry Christmas, Mel."

"Jarvis," Melody began, knowing they would all be able to hear her, her voice being one of those to recognize automatically. "Target Extremis heat signatures, disable with extreme prejudice."

"Yes, ma'am." They all spoke as one, causing a big smile on her face and Clint's, knowing he had never been more proud of her.

"What are we waiting for?" Tony asked as he looked over to Melody. "It's Christmas." With one hand movement, all the suits were waiting on his command. "Take 'em to church."

All the suits sprang into action, taking on the Extremis fighters as the group watched, occasionally ducking from spare parts flying all around. The seemed to be winning for a while, but these people were just too strong, ripping the suits apart and one actually hitting the ground in an explosion, sending them all down, gripping onto the railing to keep from falling. Melody breathed in her first sharp breath of the battle, causing Clint to give her a worried face, but she shook her head with a hand out, knowing she would be able to handle it this time.

"Jarvis," Tony commanded. "Get Igor to settle this thing."

An enormous Iron Man suit began charging towards the ones coming after the group, sending Melody to turn to Tony with wide eyes. "Hulkbuster idea?"

Tony shrugged, turning back to the suit. "Prototype. The real one is going to be bigger. A lot bigger."

"So, this is how you're managing your downtime?" Rhodey chuckled out.

"Everyone needs a hobby." He retorted almost instantly.

One of the suits lost its face mask and visual, sending it into the tanks of gas, sending off multiple explosions, one in the direction of the room Pepper was being held in and where Killian and Zeke were.

A suit landed right next to them, Tony immediately standing up and going to it as the others stood there, both confused and shocked. "Perfect timing."

"That's awesome." Rhodey spoke, spreading his arms out, ready to have the same thing as him. "Give me a suit."

Tony's face dropped as he looked to his best friend, knowing he was going to enjoy this one. "Oh, I'm sorry. They're only coded to me and Mel." He looked over to Melody, a question coming to mind. "Mel, you want one?"

Melody was looking up at one of the rooms an oil tank had crashed into, noticing one of the people glowing orange. This was something she was going to have to bury herself. She looked over to Clint who gave her a slight nod, knowing what she had to do, no matter how much it scared him. "Looks like I'm gonna need one for this."

A suit immediately crashed next to her, a smile spreading on her face, recognizing those purple and silver colors instantly. "Hello, Mark 41."

She stepped into it, having it take her shape and lock her in immediately. "Hello, Miss. Barnes."

"Wait," Rhodey spoke, his arms still up in confusion. "What does that mean?"

Melody and Tony looked to each other, not sure what to say. "I got you covered." And with that, they blasted off.

Clint looked up at Melody flying immediately into that room, making his heart tighten in worry. He had no idea what was going to happen to her, but he trusted her more than anything and he had even more faith in her. "Love you, Mel."

* * *

Melody flew into the now trashed room, looking all around, knowing Zeke was in there. Off in the corner, she saw Pepper lying in the rubble. "Oh my god." She whispered as her heart tightened, sending her off into her direction.

Suddenly, the suit was grabbed by the neck, throwing her into one of the remaining walls. She gasped, her feet weren't touching the ground and even in the suit it was uncomfortable. Zeke's yellow hair matched his now orange skin perfectly. "Melody," Zeke spoke. "Not so quickly."

"Look," Melody finally spoke, feeling the heat begin to seep into her suit. "I know you hate me for what I did, and I have to live with what happened every day of my life, but Pepper doesn't have to suffer for what I did."

"No," He spoke, that twisted voice creeping back. One she didn't recognize at all. "She kind of does because you got Clint, so now, I have to hurt Pepper. An eye for an eye type thing."

Melody shook her head, knowing there was no talking with this guy. "Just kill me." She pleaded.

"Oh," Zeke spoke. "You're gonna wish you were dead when I'm done with you."

"Zeke," Melody pleaded with him. "Look at what you've done!" Zeke blinked a couple of times, some normalcy passing across his face. "You've killed hundreds of people, and no matter how you feel about me, I know you know this is wrong!" Horror began to pass over his face as he looked below them, watching all the chaos. The chaos that he helped cause. "Zeke," Melody pleaded again, running out of air as he looked back to her, seeing that he was tormenting the girl he once said he was in love with. "I know you're in there."

Suddenly, a crash went through the room, causing Zeke to let go of her and both of them ending up on different sides of the room.

* * *

A suit appeared next to three who were left, causing them all to jump, not sure they were really needed in this fight. "Can I give you three a lift?" Jarvis asked.

Rhodey let out a dry laugh and eye roll. "Very funny."

Clint turned to them, knowing what he had to do. "You two go get the president, I'll keep the fighting down here."

"Clint," Emily spoke in a worried voice. "You can't possibly fight them all off. They're all insanely powerful."

Clint shook his head, looking up to the building Melody was in. "I have to try." When he looked back to Emily, she was giving him a worried look. "Go." She leaned forward, giving him a kiss on the cheek before joining Rhodey on the suit, taking them away.

Clint looked to one of the men glowing orange coming to him, taking a deep sigh. "I guess it's always good to get some anger out."

The two met in a punch, Clint getting burned slightly, but he was quick, able to deliver hurtful blows with minimal amount of contact, and with the Iron Man suits helping him, he would have this done in no time.

* * *

Rhodey and Emily were dropped down to one of the levels of the place, taking deep breaths, but when they looked up, they saw that they wouldn't have long to rest. Two of the Extremis minions were headed right toward them. They both hopped up, knowing what they had to do, but a suit landed right in front of them, taking care of the job for them. Emily looked at Rhodey wide eyed before giving him a little shrug. "I see why you love the suits."

Rhodey gave her a smile before grabbing her hand and pulling her forward, knowing that as soon as they saved the President, he was going to kiss her over and over again.

* * *

Clint was doing well, but he would never be as strong as those guys and when he looked up, he saw the position Zeke had Melody in. His blood was boiling at the thought of him threatening her and decided no matter what happened to him, he was going to act rashly. "Jarvis!" he called loudly, knowing one of the suits near him could hear. "I need a lift!"

As soon as he said that, one of the Extremis minions was right in front of him. He began to run, heading for the end of one of the railings. "And I need it now!" Clint yelled before jumping off.

He had a minute of free fall right before a suit caught him, sending him into a relieved sigh. "Anything for you, Mr. Barton."

"Get me to Melody."

The suit took off, the blast behind it disintegrating the minion trying to attack Clint. He took a deep breath, bracing himself for the crash, closing his eyes tightly just as he made contact and was thrown from the suit.

* * *

Tony flew around in his suit, helping all of the other suits that needed it, but his main goal was getting his family out of there safe. "Sir," Jarvis spoke, lasering Tony's focus instantly. "I've located Miss. Potts."

"About time." He retorted before blowing one of the minions next to him to bits.

Tony landed in the room, Melody, Clint, Pepper and Zeke were lying around in, but all he saw immediately was Pepper, not realizing two of the people he loved were lying unconscious. He began to move the rubble around to get to Pepper, scaring her instantly, thinking it was Killian or Zeke. "Stop!" She saw the Iron Man suit, letting a relieved breath come out. "Put it down." She commanded.

He did as she said, leaning down to be at her level, sending his suit up so she could see his face, giving them both immediate comfort. "See what happens when you hang out with my ex-girlfriends." He spoke with a bit of the shrug.

Pepper shut her eyes, slightly relieved he was joking around with her so quickly. "You're such a jerk."

"Yeah." Tony spoke, moving his hand out so she could grab onto it. "We'll talk about it over dinner." She let out a little laugh as she moved her hand towards him. "Come on." He encouraged, just wanting to get her out of there and someplace safe. "A little more, baby."

As soon as they had got to finger tips touching and Tony almost pulling her out, Killian's hand crashed out, disrupting the suit as best as he could and throwing Tony away from her. He pushed himself out of the under part of the rubble, immediately looking to Pepper. "Is this guy bothering you?" She let out a tired, hateful sigh, finding herself not even able to look at him.

* * *

Melody woke up, taking just a few seconds to realize where she was. When she jolted up, she could make out some familiar voices, Killian being one of them. What scared her the absolute most was who was laying a few feet ahead of her. "Clint!"

She hurried towards him, throwing the mask from the damaged suit off her face and clawing through the rubble just to get to him. Fear ran through her whole body once she reached him, finding no movement whatsoever, but then he coughed, replacing fear with relief. He looked up at her with tired eyes and a small smile. "Hey."

She was angry with him for doing something stupid, but she honestly couldn't be happier he was alive. "I get it now."

He smiled as he sat up, Melody eager to help him as well. What she said needed no explanation to him. She was rethinking her recklessness. "I thought you might." He spoke as his hand went to his head. He was more alert now, his eyes fully open, giving her an understanding smile. "I get it too."

The two leaned in, about to kiss when the rustling of metal distracted them. They saw Zeke running in the opposite direction they were in. Clint and Melody looked at each other, wanting to finish this more than anything, but Zeke was taking precedence.

The two got up and followed him into a room with old machinery in it. That wasn't the shocking part, though. The room was the least shocking thing about it. The shocking part was that Zeke was standing in front of them, a gun pressed to his temple.

* * *

Killian immediately climbed on top of Tony, putting one finger to his chest plate, Extremis working instantly. "Is it hot in there?" He taunted with a big smile. "Stuck?" He asked mockingly. "Feeling stuck?" Tony rolled his eyes slightly, knowing he could come up with something so much better than that if he was in Killian's position. "Feel like a little turtle? Cooking in his little turtle suit?"

"Tony." Pepper whispered out, watching this all was hurting her, just like it was hurting Tony to hear her voice that weak.

"She's watching." Killian whispered to him. "I think you should close your eyes." Tony looked back and forth from Killian to Pepper, not sure what to do that exact minute. "Close your eyes, you don't want to see this."

Killian's hand went down, but a blade came out of Tony's suit, taking his arm off instantly. Sure, it would regenerate, but it still hurt like hell, causing him to fall over, gripping what was left of his arm. "Yeah," Tony spoke, completely done with this guy. "You take a minute."

His arm began to burn a hole, sending Pepper down another story and onto a moving conveyer belt. Tony immediately threw his suit off and began chasing her down, defeating any of the minions in his way, switching suits to fly over there, doing anything possible to get her to safety.

* * *

Rhodey and Emily ran, finally making it to one of the railings looking over the President. Emily looked around, trying to figure out how they were going to do this as Rhodey leaned forward. "Mr. President!" He called, catching Ellis's attention immediately. "Just hold on, alright! We're coming."

The minions came running at them, causing Emily to take a huge sigh. "Bloody hell."

She looked all around, finally finding a way out. She looked over to Rhodey as he gave her a wild look. "Follow my lead."

He looked at her for a moment, not sure what she was going to do when she took off running and began to slide down one of the electrical wires, sending her on one of the crates. Rhodey did just what she did, finding it hard not to with how insanely fearless and brilliant she was.

The minions followed, both Rhodey and Emily pulled out their guns, shooting them as quickly as possible, but it wasn't helping much. Emily took a swing at them once they got close, but she slipped, almost falling off the crate, but she held on. "Emily!" Rhodey called, immediate fear in his voice, causing them to do the same to Emily, both of them holding on for dear life.

Emily looked to the minions for a moment before a smile grew on her lips. "Bye, bye." She spoke before shooting the wire keeping the crate up right, sending the minions falling to their deaths and Rhodey and Emily on their way to the President.

"That was part of the plan?!" Rhodey screamed, completely amazed by her.

"Of course it was!"

The wire led to the President, both of them catching onto the President before the crate hit the ground and blew. "Brace yourself!" Rhodey told the President and Emily before making the suit blast the wire off and the three were flying onto the safest platform.

Right when they landed, Rhodey shot the other part of the wire off the suit, leaving the President safe and sound. Emily and Rhodey looked to each other, both marveling the other's strengths, knowing this was going to be an amazing relationship. They both sighed and at the same time, said, "I love you," before clashing their lips together in a passionate kiss.

When they finally pulled away, the President was smiling at them as Emily still clinged to Rhodey, both looking up at the leader of their country they were fighting so hard for. "You look damn good, Mr. President." Rhodey commented, causing his smile to get even wider. "But I'm gonna need that suit back."

* * *

"Zeke," Melody tried as hard as humanly possible. "Put the gun down."

"I-I killed people." He whispered out. "You said so yourself."

"Zeke, you were being manipulated." Melody tried again, sharing a worried look with Clint. "You had no idea what you were doing."

He looked insane in that moment. Part of Clint wanted him to pull that trigger for everything he had done, but Clint knew that this wasn't the right thing to do. "Zeke," Clint tried, making Zeke jump a little, but turned to him nether less. "You can't do this, buddy. You're not thinking straight."

"You two should want me to do it the most with everything I've done to both of you."

Melody opened her mouth, but knew there was no way to counter that. They should have wanted him dead, but Melody most definitely didn't. "We don't want you dead, we just want you to give up the gun."

He looked back and forth between the two, wanting to listen to them, but all he could think of himself as was a monster now. He made it up in his mind. He had to do this. That was the only way to make up for everything he had done.

"Zeke," Melody pleaded, causing him to look at her desperately. She was completely on edge, eyes watering, hands shaking, and heart twisting in all ways possible. "This is not going to solve anything so please, put the gun down!"

He looked at Melody, taking a deep steady breath, knowing that he got into this for her. To get her back. But he lost himself along the way. He started out wide eyed with only love and science on his mind, then came the mistakes and looking up now, he knew, he was a long way from shore. And he now knew, he lost that battle a long time ago because Clint would always have her heart. And with that, he had his peace. "I love you, Melody." He whispered before taking a deep breath.

"NO!" Melody screamed, trying to run forward, but she didn't even get close as he pulled the trigger, blood and brains splattering everywhere. Mostly on Clint and Melody. They each stood there for a moment, taking in deep breaths, not sure what to do or where to even start. They had gotten one of the Mandarins down, but why did they feel like they lost something?

* * *

Tony continued to run, making a risky jump, finally getting on the conveyer belt that had Pepper. "The President is secure." Rhodey spoke through Tony's earpiece. "Emily and I are clearing the area."

"Nice work." Tony spoke instantly, finding himself not able to focus on that in the moment. Just Pepper.

He was right in front of her, the only thing keeping her from falling was the pole she had a death grip on. "Pepper!" Tony called, his voice tinged with urgency. "I got you. Relax. I got you." She was letting out scared breaths, as she reached out for him, the thing just threatening to fall. "Honey, I can't reach any further and you can't stay there, alright?" She gave him a worried look. "You gotta let go." She continued to cry out. "You gotta let go. I'll catch you. I promise."

She nodded, preparing herself, but just as she was about to let go, the thing snapped, sending her falling a few inches in front of Tony's hand. She screamed the entire way down, finally falling into the fire below her.

All Tony could do was stand there and watch the fire, knowing she was gone, but praying to god that she got out somehow. His eyes watered, his heart shattering and falling down into his stomach, but above all, he couldn't shake this feeling of guilt. He was the reason for all of this. His foolishness.

Once he found it in him to get up, he was facing Killian, channeling all his rage into attacking him. "What a shame?" He commented, looking down at the fire below him. "I would have caught her."

That was enough to set him off. With all of the energy and anger he had, he charged forward, jumping under him to get a suit. Then, the two started their long coming fight.

Clint and Melody were still in that room, looking down just in time to see Killian throw Tony into one of the railings. "We've got to help him."

Clint looked all around, not sure what they could do. "Yeah, but how?"

Melody looked all around, finally getting an idea. "Jarvis," She announced, knowing she was still connected to Tony's server. "Give my suit to Tony."

It immediately ripped itself off of her just as Tony said, "Eject." The suit he was in spit him out and he fell, Mark 41 catching him just in time. "Thanks, Mel." He grunted before flying straight up, taking Killian with him.

They continued watching the entire thing, just when things started to get rough, Tony had a backup and save through it all, both of them not understanding just how he got lucky. And when Pepper showed up, saving Tony and destroying Killian, they were both ecstatic.

Clint turned to look at Melody, the wind blowing back her blonde hair perfectly, knowing that if he could, he would stay with her in this moment forever. She turned to look at him, giving him a perfect little smile, thinking the same as her better half. "We did it." She told him with a bit of a shrug.

"I had no doubt." He told her with a little shrug. He looked her up and down before pulling her to him by the small of her back. "Are you gonna be okay?"

She took a deep breath, thinking about it. "Yeah, I'm gonna be fine." She put her hands on his face, causing him to close his eyes slightly, breathing all of her in. "I have you. I'm gonna be just fine."

He opened his eyes, finding her the most beautiful right there. The wind blowing her hair, no makeup, a bit of blood and dirt on her face. That was her most beautiful because right there, it showed how strong she really was, both physically and emotionally. And he knew right then and there that his search for love was over. The love of his life was found.

She shook her head as she looked around, finally coming back to reality. "There's so much we have to do. We have to find Emily and Rhodey. We have to let everyone know we're okay. Oh, god, Steve and Natasha must be going out of their minds." Clint chuckled a little, finding the love of his life now extremely cute. "And we still don't know what's going on with me, Clint. I was injected with Extremis and nothing happened. I'm a complete freak."

"And we will worry about all of that tomorrow." He comforted, removing one hand from her waist to put on her cheek. With that, she shifted her hands to wrap around his neck, staring right into his eyes, knowing the same thing Clint knew. This was her end of the line love. "Right now, it's just you and me." Their blue eyes stared into each other, Clint taking a deep sigh. "And I love you."

She smiled widely. "I love you." With that, they leaned in and shared a passionate kiss. It was a kiss that had you grabbing onto anything and everything to assure yourself that something this wonderful was even remotely possible. During the kiss, different Iron Man suits began exploding in the sky, looking like fireworks, but not even that couldn't distract them from each other.

When they pulled apart, all they could do was stare into each other's eyes, that's when something occurred to Clint. "Mel, how are we gonna get down from here?" She immediately began to laugh at that. "Seriously, how are we getting down? We're like a hundred feet in the air."

"What happened to just living in the moment?"

"Well, I would like to know how we're going to continue living after this moment."

Melody let out a deep sigh, just staring at him. "Merry Christmas, Clint."

And he did the same, finding it impossible to look away. "Merry Christmas, Melody."

 _ **Just one more chapter after this one! And remember, Clint still has that engagement ring. Do you think he'll propose right away or hold onto it? And if he does propose, what do you think Melody's response will be? Would love to hear your thoughts. Remember to review! I work hard on these chapters for you guys so remember to tell me what you think! Love ya!**_


	15. Epilogue

_**Okay, so y'all are gonna be a little mad at me for this ending, but you guys know by now that I have to keep you on your toes and I just thought this was a good way to end to keep you wanting more, but also hold you over until I start updating again. I'm gonna be working on my Teen Wolf fanfic for a while and then I will come back with The Winter Soldier story. I hope you guys like it even if you get mad at me and I'll see you next time! Love ya!**_

Tony and Melody both stood in front of the judge, secretly bouncing up and down at what was about to happen, but not wanting to look too happy for the judge. "Alright," he spoke, handing the papers over to Tony to sign first. "Mr. Stark, we just need your signature here."

He quickly took the pen, signing the new birth certificate, giving Melody a happy smile before sliding it over to the judge. "And Miss. Barnes," The judge announced, causing her to turn back to him with an excited face. "The name change documents just require your signature."

Melody took a deep sigh, knowing this was all she had ever wanted and even if she was now twenty-three, she was still as happy as she would be if this happened when she was a little girl. With a big smile on her face, she scribbled her signature before giving the pen and papers back to the judge.

The judge looked back and forth at the two with a happy smile, finding Melody and Tony's happiness simply radiating through the whole room. "Congratulations, you two. Tony Stark, you are now the father of Melody Stark."

Tony and Melody immediately enveloped each other in a hug. Melody would never forget her father. That was impossible. Tony, he had been the best father since her own father died, and now, she could truly say it.

The two walked out of the courthouse with their arms around each other and happy smiles on their faces. "So, this adoption is going to be sealed tight with SHIELD. No reporters or enemies are going to get it." Melody reported as she began looking through her work tablet.

"And you will still be addressed as Agent Barnes." Tony spoke, almost reciting what she talked about from memory. "I know, I know." He got into the driver's seat of the car as Melody rolled her eyes.

She got in, looking to him with a bit of a smile. "Don't take it so personal." She turned to him while putting on her seatbelt, finding him listening intently, knowing she was about to say something. "Do you know why it took me so long to find my mom?" He shook his head. "Because after my father died, she legally had her name changed back to her maiden name, but she still went by Agent Barnes."

Tony turned his head to the side, finally realizing it. "That's actually pretty smart."

"And even now, she goes by Supervisor Carter which is her mother's maiden name and not her actual last name." Melody shrugged, finding herself proud that her mother was an awesome super spy. "She's kind of a genius." Tony gave her a look which she just smiled to. "And now, I am Melody Stark, but Agent Barnes."

Tony gave her a big smile, just happy to hear her new name over and over again because he had a bouncing twenty-three year old girl he loved from day one. "Perfect."

* * *

Melody and Tony were both in the waiting room, holding hands anxiously. They wanted this to be as discreet as the name change. Actually, even more discreet than that. So discreet SHIELD wouldn't even know. She was even debating on telling her mother that something was wrong with her. Clint begged Melody to tag along, but if something was really wrong, she didn't want him to be there for that. She wanted to tell him in her own time. And Tony, there was no way of talking him _out_ of going.

The doctor suddenly opened the door, causing the two to stand up immediately. "Melody, Tony, come on in." He had been their physician for years and he was the only doctor they could really trust. The best thing about him was his _extreme_ discreetness.

The two walked in, Melody climbing up on the patient chair as Tony stood close by. They were holding hands tight, not sure what to expect as he looked through the file. "Melody," he started, finally making eye contact. "There is no Extremis in your blood." She smiled while looking over to Tony but they both knew that couldn't be the only news. "You fought it off."

Both of their heads snapped back to the doctor, not understanding what on earth was happening. "I fought it off?"

"Yes." He spoke slowly, giving them a confused face, but it was just making them more uneasy. "We tracked your blood back to the point Extremis was inserted and almost as quick as it was put in, your body fought it off. That's why I believe you were in so much pain."

Tony opened his mouth, about to speak, but he wasn't even sure where the start with all of this. Nothing was making sense. He thought back to those videos of the Extremis patients, knowing that's what should have happened to his little girl. "How can a body fight off something that invasive to the DNA?"

"That's the thing," he spoke as he played with his hands slightly, not sure how to deliver this next piece of news. It wasn't news doctors delivered quite often. "We don't know."

Melody blinked a couple of times, not sure what to think. That's the first time she had ever heard a doctor say that. "You don't know?"

"Melody," he spoke while shaking his head out of complete confusion. "I don't know what to tell you. There are mysteries in science and you…seem to be one of them." Tony and Melody looked to each other, not totally sure if this was a positive or negative. "There is an anomaly in your blood that could be the culprit."

Melody shrugged, that anomaly had never been a big deal. "That's been there since I was born."

"Yeah," he spoke, looking her right in the eye. "We're starting to think it's a bigger deal than we originally thought."

Tony and Melody shared another worried look before Melody looked down at her hands. When she looked at herself, all she could think about was the freak blood that was running through her veins this very moment, what it could do to her and what this meant for her.

* * *

Melody sighed as she looked at everything in the trailer attached to the car. She decided she was going to give the property one last look. Maybe one day there would be a replica home in its spot, but right now, they all knew that they needed another place to call home. She turned around, but standing towards the end of the property was her father. Tony Stark.

She slowly began to move forward, looking at what he was holding onto in his hands. She looked down at the arc reactor they had both worked so hard on. She almost couldn't believe that so much of their time was possessed by that little thing that was no longer required. She looked up to Tony, not sure what he was going to do. "It was a cocoon." He spoke finally, almost making her jump, not expecting any words from him. "It was never a distraction or hobby."

Melody studied him, not sure what say to him. They had been through so much change in a week. He finally gave the arc reactor one last look before throwing it into the ocean. Melody let out a sigh as she watched it finally land in the water. "Wow." She sighed out. It felt different than what she expected. It was like a huge weight was lifted off of her shoulders. The shrapnel was out and there was no way he could possibly be killed from it ever again. And with that one little thing sinking in the ocean, she felt completely and totally content.

Tony turned to look at her, grabbing her hand, walking back to the car with her. "You know," he spoke, looking over to her in the passenger's seat, never wanting another passenger. "They can take our house, our tricks and toys, but the one thing they can't take away," Melody sighed with a bit of a smile on her face, looking out the window, just knowing what he was going to say. He took his sunglasses off and looked at himself in the rearview mirror. "I am Iron Man."

* * *

Steve jumped impatiently, looking around, searching the entire airport for any trace of her. "Will you calm down?" Natasha asked in a cool voice from behind him. "Everything's going to be fine."

"They're the only family I have left." He spoke with a deep sigh. "All of them have to be okay."

"They're the only family I've got left too." Natasha spoke, causing Steve to turn to look at her, knowing she was exactly right and to cut her feelings out of this was selfish. "So I know exactly how you feel, but don't be dumb about it." She shrugged, looking off to everything going on in JFK. "You've got to be calm and – " She stopped mid-sentence when she saw them all. "Oh my god! There they are!"

Steve's head immediately snapped to where she was pointing, seeing Melody began to wave as everyone else was giving off happy smiles at the two. "Here comes Mr. Perfect Uncle." Tony whispered into Melody's ear, causing her to give him an eye roll along with a smile. She knew it was just a joke, but she also knew that's what he was feeling when they first met Steve.

Melody got off the escalator, immediately going to Steve while giving him a large hug. She couldn't believe so much had happened since she'd been gone. It felt like she was gone for a whole year.

Clint, he immediately went to Natasha. The little sister he never had. He was feeling the same thing Melody was, missing Natasha more than anything at all. Well, he did really miss his bed.

"How'd Christmas go?" Natasha asked as Clint pulled away from the hug so he and Melody could switch people.

Melody gave her a dry laugh before leaning in to hug. "Very funny."

When they all broke away, Emily, Tony and Rhodey made their way to the group. When Steve saw Rhodey, he remembered everything Melody told Steve about him. Especially his rank. Steve looked Rhodey up and down before pinning his hand into a salute. "Colonel."

Tony rolled his eyes slightly behind Rhodey as Emily, Melody and Natasha began catching up as Clint watched with a big smile on his face at what was happening right in front of him. "This is awesome." Clint laughed out with his hand clasped over his mouth.

"At ease." Rhodey instructed as Steve immediately put down his hand so Rhodey could shake it.

"I told you that would happen." Melody whispered to Clint as he handed her a twenty dollar bill from his pants pocket.

"Not bad, Barnes."

"We should get going." Clint spoke suddenly, causing Melody to turn from Steve and Rhodey to her boyfriend. She sighed and nodded, knowing he was right.

Tony gave her a slight smile as she moved towards him, the two sighing before really looking at each other. "Only four hours away from DC by car drive and even shorter on the Stark jet."

Melody laughed before giving him a tight hug which he reciprocated. "I love you." She whispered into his ear with a bit of a sigh. She was just getting used to having Tony around a lot more and now they were leaving each other again.

Tony sighed as well, feeling the same thing she was, but he knew in his heart that this time would be different. "I love you, Mel." Tony pulled away, his hands still on her shoulders, looking her right in the eye with a devious smile. "Are you free on MLK day?"

Melody began to laugh with a nod. "I think we can work out a visit."

Pepper moved to Melody, giving her a tight hug. "If you need anything," Pepper began to talk as she rocked back and forth while holding onto her. "Just call and we will be there in a flash." She pulled away, giving her a little shrug. "Or like an hour by jet."

Melody laughed and gave her another quick hug as she looked back and forth at the two. The two of them being so close was honestly one of the best things to happen to them. Clint put his arm around her after his goodbyes with Tony and they all waved at each other.

Tony and Pepper were the first to turn around and head for the door and the rest of the group did the same in the opposite direction. Melody felt this ping of sadness as they walked away that she almost didn't want to leave. That's when it clicked to Melody that she actually forgot something. She stopped walking and turned to Clint real quick. "Oh my god. I'll be right back."

"What is it?" Clint asked as he saw her go into her bag really quick to pull something out of it.

"I'll be right back!" She repeated before taking off in the direction Tony was going.

Pepper was holding the door open for Tony when he heard, "Tony!" He turned around to see Melody running up to him. When she reached him, he was studying her as she tried to catch her breath.

"I'll get a cab." Pepper spoke quickly, picking up that Melody wanted to talk to just Tony.

They both nodded before looking back to each other. Melody sighed as she shook her head, knowing she just had to get to the point. She handed over the wrapped present with a smile. "Merry Christmas, Tony." He began to laugh as he reached out for the wrapped present. "I didn't know what to get you at first, but then I realized what the perfect gift would be."

He opened up the present, smiling slightly at what was inside it. He pulled it out and showed it to her. "Is this the key to your apartment?"

Melody shrugged. "Come over anytime whether I'm there or not."

Tony rolled his eyes as he pulled her in for one last hug while shaking his head at how nerdy she could be every now and then. Melody let out a relieved sigh, knowing this goodbye felt a lot better than the goodbye from a few minutes ago. "Thank you." She told him.

"For what?" He asked, genuinely confused.

"For treating me like your daughter even before I was."

Tony kissed her on the head, his hug just getting tighter. "Anytime, baby girl."

* * *

Clint and Melody were laying on their carpet, their tummies and chest the support to keep their head up. They lied close to the fire while both eating a slice of pizza. They hadn't been alone together since they almost died because of Zeke Stane and they were really just craving this alone time more than anything. Clint threw his crust down on his plate, signaling he was done, causing Melody to roll her eyes. "What the hell is wrong with you?"

She leaned forward, taking the crust off his plate as he looked at her with a smirk. "The bread is too hard. It hurts my teeth."

"Wuss." She coughed out with a big smile spreading across her face at making fun of him. He stuck his tongue out at her causing her to use that same bubbly laugh as when they were sitting across from each other on her birthday. Technically their first date.

Clint looked at her, the fire's light complimenting her honey blonde hair as her teeth tried her best to tear off a piece of the tough bread. He smiled, knowing that if he didn't ask her now, something would come up later and he would never be able to ask her. "Hey, Mel," he started, looking up at her as she finished the crust. He grabbed her two hands, holding them in his as he looked up at her. "You know I love you, right?"

Melody looked up at him, her brows furrowed. "You're not dying are you?"

"Like I really love you." He continued, gripping her hands tightly. "There are no flaws to me when it comes to you."

"You're really scaring me." Melody chuckled out nervously. "Just answer if you're dying or not."

Clint moved toward her, sitting up, kissing her forehead as he moved to his pants pocket. "I'm not dying." He pulled out the ring box, Melody's eyes getting slightly wide. "But I am dying to ask you a question." He moved closer to her, as Melody sat up as well, both now leaning against the coffee table for support. "Melody Buchanan Barnes," she let out a sigh as she looked down at the box as it opened up, revealing a bright diamond ring shaped like the arc reactor. She let out a gasp at how pretty it was, not expecting anything like this to happen today. "Will you marry me?"

Melody's eyes were glued on the ring, her mouth dropped, not sure what to do. She looked up at Clint, a small sound coming out of her mouth, not finding her voice at all. The fire cracked next to the two, the only sound filling the air as the mood of anticipation and uncertainty draped the room.

 _ **Thank you all so much for reading and Melody Barnes: Evergreen will be coming to you soon!**_


	16. New Story Up!

Melody Barnes: Evergreen is now up!


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